Dominion attempts to undercut savings from VCEA

RICHMOND, VA – Today, the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Appalachian Voices revealed at the Virginia State Corporation Commission that Dominion Energy’s plans would undercut savings from the Virginia Clean Economy Act by overcharging customers for inefficient and unnecessary projects.

 “At a time when people across the Commonwealth are dealing with economic hardship Dominion is contorting the benefits of low-cost renewables to serve its shareholders rather than looking out for its customers,” said Will Cleveland a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Dominion proposes to overbuild its system – with costs carried by captive customers – when instead it could pass savings on to people across Virginia.”

Dominion Energy is required to present an Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, to the Virginia State Corporation Commission to inform the Commonwealth of its generation and energy distribution plans for the coming years. Among the faults that expert witnesses found in Dominion Energy’s IRP were:

–          Creating an unreliable energy load forecast based on unsupported projections of data center growth

–          Overbuilding projects to meet an unreliable and unlikely forecast

–          Choosing expensive resources while ignoring or undermining lower cost options like energy efficiency and rooftop solar

“Thanks to the Virginia administration and state legislators, the Commonwealth is at the start of real and important work to address climate change and equity issues,” said Cleveland. “But this work cannot be accomplished without an honest and financially efficient energy plan from Dominion.”