Virginia citizens and businesses have opportunity to weigh in with the SCC on data centers and the long term impact on their energy costs

This state agency has Virginia’s digital and energy future in its hands

Data center in Ashburn, VA. Credit Hugh Kenny/PEC

Warrenton, VA (April 1, 2025) – The General Assembly failed to pass meaningful data center reform, despite the introduction of bi-partisan bills to rein in data center impacts and protect Virginia ratepayers from increased energy costs. Gov. Youngkin vetoed even the most watered down data center reform bills that made it to his desk. Now, all eyes are on the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC), a state agency that has regulatory jurisdiction over our utilities.

The SCC is currently reviewing Dominion Energy’s proposed Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which is a forecast of the utility’s load obligations and its plan to meet those obligations over the next 15 years. The SCC is accepting public comments from all Virginia residents on Dominion’s IRP through 5 p.m. April 8.

The General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission study¹ on the data center industry in Virginia acknowledged looming energy problems. But, Dominion Energy proposed IRP plans to meet the deficit of power to serve ever increasing load requests from data centers c, which at 40.2 gigawatts,² exceeds the entire energy load of Virginia today, by recommending the extended operation of fossil fuel generation plants, new fossil fuel generation, new nuclear generation and a huge increase in transmission.

The study estimates that the infrastructure needed to generate, purchase and transmit the additional power required for approved data centers in Virginia will cost more than $200 billion² and require miles of additional electric transmission lines and gas pipelines and many power plants. Under current rate allocation policies, residential customers, small businesses, and everyone else with an electric bill in Virginia, could end up paying for this. Dominion Energy’s recent announcement about increasing rates and new rate classification is a tacit acknowledgement of the unique impact high energy users like data centers place on the system. As that rate case moves forward PEC will be pushing Dominion to ensure data centers are paying their fair share.

“Virginia is in danger of falling behind and becoming the ‘how not to’ example that other states are using to avoid what has happened here. Ohio, Georgia, Texas, Indiana, Washington, and Maryland are doing what Virginia’s policymakers and regulators have failed to do thus far,” said Chris Miller, president of Piedmont Environmental Council. “The SCC has the opportunity to take action now – and ensure data centers won’t overwhelm the power grid, drain statewide water resources and further intrude on areas never meant to be industrialized.”

According to the SCC’s own requirements, Dominion’s IRP must provide:

Reasonable prices
Reliable service
Environmental responsibility

As written, Dominion’s plan fails on all three critical responsibilities.

Reasonable Prices

The General Assembly’s JLARC study¹ shows that unconstrained demand for power in Virginia would double within the next 10 years, with the data center industry being the overwhelming driver.

Under the current rate structure, residential and other businesses could pay for 50 percent of data center infrastructure. That means everyone’s electricity bills could double over the period of the IRP because of $200 billion³ in data center energy infrastructure costs. The current pre-data center rate sharing system subsidizes the wealthiest companies in the world by spreading costs to all Virginians.

Citizens should tell the SCC they must act to create sustained regulation that prevents Virginia citizens from subsidizing the richest companies in the world and a good chunk of the world’s internet usage.

Reliable Service

Data centers place immense stress on the electricity grid. Dominion Energy has signed contracts for more than double the current peak load without any reasonable or executable pathway to build out the necessary generation and transmission needed to service just existing data centers, let alone the many more in the pipeline.

Citizens should tell the SCC to do their job by ensuring Virginia consumers receive adequate, reliable service at just and reasonable rates.

Environmental Responsibility

Dominion’s IRP glosses over existing and projected environmental impacts. Portions of the state are in or near drought conditions⁴and emergency levels of ground water and stream flow. Dominion Energy and Big Tech are able to hide the impact of the billions of gallons of water they will draw from Virginia aquifers and rivers because of the General Assembly’s failure to act on legislation that would have improved transparency around such needs. Residents could see their wells run dry, public water supplies drawn down to dangerous levels, and wildlife, forests and other undeveloped land suffer as natural water sources are depleted.

The IRP also relies on more expansive use of fossil fuels and delayed retirement of coal fired power plants to provide for the unprecedented amount of electricity data centers require threatening our local air quality and climate.

Reliability and environmental damage are connected. When the grid fails for any reason, data centers start back up diesel generators by the hundreds, polluting the area with particulate matter and nitrogen oxides that are harmful to the health of humans and animals. This is a serious air quality threat to residential areas and schools often located close to data centers.

Citizens should tell the SCC to further study the cumulative impacts of the data center industry on communities adjacent to data center growth.

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