This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
In a ruling on Tuesday, the State Corporation Commission stated that Dominion Energy’s 2024 Integrated Resource Plan, while “legally sufficient”, raises concerns about the utility’s future spending plans, which will “significantly impact millions of residential and business customers in the monthly bills they must pay for power,” the commission stated in the final order.
Utility companies serving Virginia must provide a 15-year plan every two years to explain how they will meet energy demands, and carbon emission reductions standards through the Virginia Clean Economy Act that passed in 2020. The SCC then determines if the plan is reasonable and within the public’s best interest.
Here’s a roundup of the SCC’s top recommendations for Dominion.
Planning period
The company has been using a 15-year planning period for the IRP. For the next one, the SCC asked them to use a 20-year plan to match the regional power grid PJM’s forecast window. The commission believes it makes more sense to align planning periods for the utility and the energy provider.
Modeling
The commission recommended Dominion have at least one model run where carbon emission generation is retired completely, as required by the VCEA. In the 2024 IRP, Dominion laid out limitations for building more battery storage that holds power from renewable energy sources. In the next report, Dominion is asked to look at the feasibility of increasing its limits to build battery storage as the technology becomes commercially available.
There has been stalled legislation in the General Assembly to try and bolster battery storage that hasn’t moved forward due to the governor’s vetoes.
Clean Virginia, a clean energy advocacy group, has been granted permission to see the company’s final modeling before the 2025 IRP is filed.
Demand side management
Dominion provides an efficiency program that homeowners and businesses can opt into to try and save money by reducing their power usage. The VCEA has power efficiency targets laid out for the state’s utility companies, which Dominion failed to meet in 2022, 2023, or 2024. In the 2024 IRP Dominion proposed “low-end feasible” energy savings targets of 2.10% for 2026, 2.41% for 2027, and 2.73% for 2028.
The SCC said “it would be reasonable to establish for Dominion energy savings targets of 3.00%, 4.00%, and 5.00%, for 2026, 2027, and 2028, respectively. Accordingly, consistent with the requirements for the Company’s RPS planning, we direct Dominion to model achievement of the final savings targets.”
Bill analysis
Commissioners asked Dominion to include how base rates could be impacted in their future analysis. The company said it could be difficult to calculate, but the SCC said they’d like to see it even if it could be imprecise.
Clean Virginia aired their frustrations with the IRP report on Wednesday, with Deputy Director Dyanna Jaye stating, “year after year, Dominion files plans that ignore clean energy requirements, lock in expensive fossil fuel infrastructure and drive up electric bills.” She commended the SCC for their ruling, saying it “has taken a step in the right direction by calling for significant reforms moving forward.”
The group said the procedural changes handed down by the SCC do help with transparency and boosting the company’s required targets, but it does not stop them from pursuing projects — like gas plants — that go against the VCEA goals.
“Fixing Virginia’s energy system will take more than technical tweaks,” Jaye continued. “As long as monopoly utilities control the energy planning process, Dominion will keep profiting from poor decisions, and Virginians will keep paying the price through higher bills and worsening health outcomes.”
Dominion filed its 2024 IRP in October of last year. The commission asked the company to give public notice of scheduled hearings to allow for stakeholder input. Several environmental groups and companies participated in the case.
The SCC did accept the plan overall despite these recommendations. Environmental groups were frustrated by the commission not addressing Dominion’s plans to build more gas plants without running analysis on the health risks for surrounding communities.
“The Commission ordered some solid improvements to the planning process moving forward, but in the meantime, customers are left with many unanswered questions and members of environmental justice communities are left with even more,” said Nate Benforado, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Dominion may attempt to proceed with its ‘accepted’ polluting plan, even though the Commission has recognized it is the product of a flawed process.”
Dominion responded to the order by thanking the commission for its “thorough review” of the IRP and pledging to “follow the additional requirements” in its future plans. i
“Our customers are using 5% more power each year, and demand is expected to double in the (next) 10 years. We’re focused on serving our customers’ growing needs with reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy,” Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby said in a statement. “We’re investing in new power generation from every source, grid upgrades to strengthen reliability and energy efficiency programs to help our customers save.”
Ruby added that most of the utility’s new power is generated by carbon-free sources including offshore wind and solar, but didn’t discount the utility’s continued reliance on fossil fuels.
“We’re building the largest offshore wind project in the country, and we have the third-largest solar fleet. We also need natural gas in the mix because renewables are not always available. That’s a balanced energy mix that is increasingly clean and always reliable.”
The company’s residential rates are below the national average, Ruby said, and are projected to grow by less than 3% a year. He also touted the company’s ongoing efforts to build resilience against severe weather by burying power lines in areas most prone to power outages.
“That’s substantially reducing storm-related outages and shortening restoration times for our customers,” Ruby said.
