(C) Virginia Mercury This story was originally published by Virginia Mercury and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Dominion gets approval for solar projects; regulators discuss data center demand • Virginia Mercury [1] ['Charlie Paullin', 'More From Author', '- April'] Date: 2024-04-03 Dominion Energy’s regulators approved another suite of solar projects, including four projects the utility will own and 13 facilities owned by third-party developers, after reviewers acknowledged the significant projected electricity demand from data centers. The State Corporation Commission approved the projects Friday after reviewing a 153-page report from its staff and hearing arguments from environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices and the Office of the Attorney General about keeping costs low for ratepayers. “The Commission has continued to exercise its delegated discretion in a manner that faithfully implements the VCEA’s carbon-reduction requirements, while best protecting consumers who expect and deserve reliable and affordable service,” the SCC wrote in its final order. The four projects Dominion will own include a 127 megawatt facility in Richmond County, a 95 megawatt facility in Pittsylvania County, a 57 megawatt facility in Powhatan and a 50 megawatt facility spanning parts of Henry and Pittsylvania Counties, all for a total of 329 megawatts. The 13 power purchase agreements — contracts the utility has with developers of facilities to purchase the electricity that is generated — total 435 megawatts. The size of these projects range from as small as 5 megawatts in the city of Pamplin to a 240 megawatt facility in the Isle of Wright. All of the projects are expected to be in use in 2026, except for the Richmond County-based project that Dominion will own that is planned to go online in 2024 and the Pamplin facility that’s set to begin producing in 2027. The projects will add about $1.54 in total to the average residential customer’s monthly bill. Construction of the projects will create over 1,600 jobs and more than $570 million in economic benefits, the utility says. In reviewing the projects Dominion will own, SCC Hearing Examiner Mathias Roussy noted that staff projects data centers will add 7,600 megawatts of electricity needs, or load growth, over the next 14 years, while the utility projects there will be a need for about double that amount. At the same time, 10,000 megawatts of Dominion’s fossil-fuel generation will be retired as part of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, state policy that seeks to decarbonize the grid by 2045. The new Dominion-owned projects will add generation capacity, but that amount won’t be at its full potential, Roussy noted, putting “the challenges of significant load growth or significant retirements in perspective.” The VCEA does provide off-ramps for fossil fuel facilities to not be retired in the case of reliability concerns, electric utility regulatory attorney Will Reisinger noted in a phone interview, while adding the proliferation of data centers calls into question the ability for solar alone to provide energy needs. “If technology companies are moving to Virginia and are doubling the demand then that’s a different ball game,” Reisinger said. Ed Baine, President of Dominion Energy Virginia, said in a statement the projects reflect the utility’s promise to deliver “reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy for our customers,” noting that Dominion’s investments in offshore wind, battery storage and solar contribute to the state’s “progress on its clean energy transition.” While not taking a particular stance on the projects, Appalachian Voices argued during the SCC review that Dominion should be prevented from consolidating its fees tacked on to bills known as rate adjustment clauses, or riders, for the solar projects they’ll own with the rider fees for the power purchase agreements. Blocking the rider fees from being lumped together could increase transparency for customers, Appalachian Voices said. Roussy had recommended the consolidation at the request of Dominion as a means of “judicial economy” by having fewer hearings to review the riders. But by doing so, Appalachian Voices said, customers wouldn’t be able to see as easily how much more they may pay for a Dominion-owned project compared to the PPAs, mechanisms that several environmental groups support because they can be more cost-effective than utility-owned projects. “At present, the typical residential customer pays about $1.70 a month for [Dominion-owned projects] and receives a credit of $0.29 a month for [PPA projects],” Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Grayson Holmes, argued on behalf of Appalachian Voices. “The same has been true historically.” Appalachian Voices also asked for the commission to clarify whether a 35% requirement for Dominion’s solar obligations to meet the VCEA come through power purchase agreements, but the commission took no action on that request. A bill this past session from Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, would have changed state law to clearly define the 35% requirement as a minimum, not a limit, but it got carried over to next year. The Commission’s approval of the solar projects came with the rejection of a 5 megawatt project in Hanover and 3 megawatt project in Brunswick because of how costly they were. The Office of the Attorney General said rejection of those projects was “well-reasoned.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://virginiamercury.com/2024/04/03/dominion-gets-approval-for-solar-projects-regulators-discuss-data-center-demand/ Published and (C) by Virginia Mercury Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/virginiamercury/