The lack of state or federal oversight of the data center approval process has created an energy and resource “crisis by contract” for Virginia
For Immediate Release Contact:
Mike Doble, [email protected]
Piedmont Environmental Council; 703-579-7963
Warrenton, Va. (November 18, 2024) – The State Corporation Commission required Dominion to supplement its Oct. 15, 2024, Integrated Resource Plan with modeling plans that meet the requirements of the Virginia Clean Economy Act and show scenarios without data center load. Dominion Energy has begrudgingly responded and the results are alarming, yet unsurprising. It shows that scenarios without data center load growth result in less natural gas and nuclear additions and significantly lower infrastructure costs, demonstrating unequivocally that continued unchecked data center growth will cost ratepayers, our communities, and the environment.
Northern Virginia is suffering an uncontrolled influx and haphazard planning of data centers because the state lacks a transparent and consistent approval process. Absent that process, Dominion Energy is able to enter into secret contracts with data center operators like Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Dominion is signing hundreds of contracts committing to power it does not currently generate and without a reasonable plan to provide the requested power in the years ahead.
“Dominion Energy’s business as usual approach of agreeing to contracts they cannot fulfill has put the energy grid in Virginia, and the entire Mid-Atlantic region, into an artificially created reliability crisis that’s being used to streamline massive energy infrastructure projects. This ‘crisis by contract’ situation that’s been created should be a huge red flag for state legislators. We need better planning and oversight and to clearly understand this industry’s enormous impacts on our state’s land, water, air and other natural resources before we commit over $100 billion in new energy infrastructure,” said Chris Miller, President of the Piedmont Environmental Council.
In addition to the lack of oversight and process discipline, there is the issue of fairness. In Virginia, the data center industry is placing a disproportionate financial and environmental toll on small businesses and families.
Big Tech, made up of the wealthiest companies in the world are taking advantage of a system that makes Virginians pay the high price for their global business infrastructure. Dominion Energy conservatively estimates that Virginia ratepayers will face a doubling or more of electricity bills in the years ahead if the rate structure is not changed; and that does not include the flood of additional data centers in the pipeline which have not yet signed contracts for power.
“Virginia is being asked to host the concentration of a global industry that will have an unprecedented impact on our local resources and ratepayers,” said Miller. “It’s time for the General Assembly to assume oversight of this industry and insist on consistent state-level approval criteria and transparency, not secrecy, in the contracts Dominion Energy and other providers agree to with data center operators. The data center industry and the utility need to be held accountable for these impacts and ensure the industry is paying for that new energy supply and the infrastructure that it requires.”
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The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) works to protect and restore the lands and waters of the Virginia Piedmont, while building stronger, more sustainable communities. Founded in 1972, PEC is a locally based, community-supported 501(c)3 nonprofit and accredited land trust. At the core of PEC’s approach is a focus on educating, engaging and empowering people to effect positive change in their communities.