RELAC Don't Do It: Frankie Goes to Richmond, Comes Back With 56 Percent Rate Hike

On Aug. 4, the State Corporation Commission approved a proposed average 56 percent rate increase for customers of RELAC, the jet-age cooling company that uses tepid lake water to "cool" homes around Lake Anne. In return, RELAC will be required to implement "certain quality of service improvements," including making sure its cooling system actually cools houses -- or at least create an awesome "web page" with maintenance tips and contact information for customers, hopefully with some cool animated GIFs showing a guy with a jackhammer under text that says "PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION."

"We think that is progress, but not strong enough and we may submit comments to that effect," Fairfax County's Steve Sinclair told residents of Hickory Cluster, or at least its fancy "web log."

Weighing in at a mere 56 pages, the official examiner's report includes testimony presented by RELAC customers during meetings in Fairfax and Richmond earlier this year, along with a long list of stipulations with which RELAC is supposed to comply -- including the aforementioned thing about creating a web page. We feel cooler already!