Virginia’s new General Assembly Building in downtown Richmond opened just before the 2024 legislative session. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury)
As Virginia grapples with rapidly increasing energy demands and skyrocketing utility bills, a group of state lawmakers are looking deeper into energy efficiency, community solar, and energy storage.
The Commission on Electric Utility Regulation reviewed the state’s efforts to fund energy efficiency plans during virtual meetings on Wednesday. They also talked about the uncertainty around community solar investments and the rollout of energy storage plans.
Charts shared in the meeting by Carrie Hearne, the executive director of the commission, show that Virginia is 9th in electricity expenditure, which is higher than the national average. This energy use is due in part to the growing number of data centers across the state, which require large amounts of electricity. The state’s high energy expenditure also means that the cost burden for low-income households can be great.
Key recommendations from the Virginia Energy Efficiency Council include increasing investments into energy efficiency programs for low-income households to upgrade their homes and waste less energy.
“Investments in energy efficiency is a very least-cost way to save money, save electricity, save energy, and help reduce pressure on the grid,” Hearne said.
The council also recommended the state rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a carbon credits market which previously was generating funds for the state to invest in energy efficiency and flood resilience programs. Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled the state out of RGGI, a move a judge deemed unlawful, and some lawmakers fear rejoining it will add yet another cost added onto customer’s utility bills.
“If we’re talking about affordability, anything we add to that, no matter what it is, it’s going to cost. So we need to be very careful about adding things to riders,” said Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott.
The commission expressed interest in ramping up nuclear power through small modular reactors. SMRs are not currently operating in the country, but multiple are under construction in other states. Dominion Energy has already selected their North Anna power plant as the site of their first SMR. There is still a long road ahead that will entail selecting the proposals for the projects, getting the proposer licensing, and other requirements.
The commission did not discuss utility sized solar projects, but did discuss the status of community solar in the commonwealth. Community solar allows neighborhoods to buy into small-scale solar projects to have their utility bills reduced based on how much power is generated and how much they bought in.
However, if Dominion’s proposed changes to the minimum bill amount materialize, it could impact those savings. There hasn’t been much movement to expand this program in Virginia, and federal grants for it have recently been paused or terminated.
The Virginia General Assembly has failed to pass bills that would expand energy storage requirements, and ones that have passed have been vetoed by Youngkin. As long-term battery technology advances, some lawmakers are pushing utilities to utilize them more to assist with storing energy from solar and wind projects.
The American Clean Power Association, which represents companies in energy storage, solar, and wind, reported to the commission that there is 56 megawatts of battery storage operational in the state now, 252MW in construction, and 94MW in the proposal stage. There are many battery storage projects in the interconnection pipeline for the regional transmission grid, PJM, to approve. Dominion has multiple pilot projects in the works that look outside lithium-ion batteries as options for their projects.
“These pilots will deliver significant value, not only for the technology developers, they get to test their systems and real world conditions, but also to us, as we help de-risk the technical performance and cost effectiveness of these proposed three (projects),” said Brandon Martin with Dominion Energy. “The real world operating data validating the technology’s ability to enhance the resiliency of the grid and those claims and the cost benefits is real.”
The Commission on Electric Utility Regulation will hold more meetings this fall to get updates on the state’s energy profile and efforts by utilities to meet the VCEA transition to renewable energy sources. They plan to have recommendations for legislation by December.
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