Category: Energy
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Dancing on the Watery Grave of CVOW
By Steve Haner, As it becomes clear that the 90-day pause of the Dominion Energy Virginia offshore wind project is probably its final death rattle, the folks who encouraged the Trump Administration to kill it are looking to shift the blame to outgoing Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin. One of the organizations that filed a…
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2026 Battery Bill is Still in Flux but Will Be Great!
by Steve Haner Advocates for adding massive amounts of battery storage to Virginia’s electric grid held a news conference Wednesday to claim again their upcoming bill will lower energy costs, not raise them, but added that the legislation they will push is still being drafted. The 2026 General Assembly session starts in a week, and…
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Dominion Describes Efforts to Limit Turbine Radar Interference
By Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia’s team building its offshore wind facility spent years working with the U.S. Navy and the air defense agency NORAD on ways to mitigate the problems that would be caused by the 836-foot-tall turbines, reaching several agreements, the utility has told a federal court. The company – meaning ultimately the…
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The Losers in Wind Project Fight are the Ratepayers
By Derrick Max President Trump’s decision to suspend Dominion Energy’s massive Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project is sure to stir up another gale of political fights across the Commonwealth. While some will hail it as a triumph for fiscal and national security; others will see it as an assault on clean energy. Both sides are worthy of debate before such projects are ever approved but are now…
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PJM Capacity Prices Tick Even Higher Into 2028
by Steve Haner The regional electric grid operator that serves Virginia held another of its periodic auctions to secure sufficient supply for the future last week and the price went up again, slightly higher than in last summer’s auction. Even worse news, PJM Interconnection fell short of securing its target amount needed to guarantee reliability. PJM…
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FLASH: Trump Administration Stops CVOW Construction Work
by Steve Haner I was wondering why Dominion Energy had not issued its quarterly report on the progress of its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, or why when down there earlier this month, watching with binoculars from a high hotel room, I could see no sign of any activity on the construction site. Now we…
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$62 Billion For Grid Batteries is Not a Path to Affordability
By Steve Haner The 2026 General Assembly is likely to amend the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) to greatly expand the construction of utility-scale batteries for our electric grid. Based on the current prices for Virginia battery installations, this may saddle ratepayers with $54 billion in new capital expenses over 20 years. The Commission on…
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RGGI Tax Rose Again. How, When Does it Return to VA?
by Steve Haner, The regional carbon tax on electricity generation favored by Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger and legislative Democrats rose to a record amount in the December auction, $26.73 per ton of carbon emissions. That is a 20% increase from three months ago and is 4% higher than the previous top price, set last year. The…
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The SCC Decides: Dominion’s Rates and Profits Go Up, New Rules on Data Centers
by Steve Haner, The massive data centers behind a growing energy crunch in Virginia will begin to pay substantially more for electricity in Dominion Energy’s territory, but not until 2027. The State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) approval of a new rate structure for the largest users will probably only intensify debates about what is their “fair…
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Gas Approval Infuriates a Huge Donor to Democrats, Elates Another
by Steve Haner, The State Corporation Commission (SCC) was able to approve Dominion Energy Virginia’s application for a needed natural gas generation facility because the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) includes a safety valve. If energy reliability is threatened, the prohibitions on natural gas at the heart of that law can be waived. One of…
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High Cost Kills One, Maybe Two Clean Economy Act Projects
by Steve Haner Citing the high cost, the Virginia State Corporation Commission on Friday denied a request to add a battery project to the Appalachian Power Company grid. In the same decision, an out-of-state wind project for Appalachian was approved, but only if it qualifies for major federal tax credits to keep down the cost. Without those tax credits,…
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Enhanced Trifecta Gives Democrats Full Control of Energy Laws
By Steve Haner, The return of the political trifecta Democrats enjoyed during the 2020 and 2021 General Assembly sessions – now bolstered with a 64-36 majority in the House of Delegates – leaves the question of how to deal with Virginia’s energy issues entirely in their hands. Only if the Democrats suffer a significant…
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IRP Part 2: Dominion Bill Projections Just Keep Exploding
By Steve Haner, Two years ago, Dominion Energy Virginia predicted that by 2035 a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity would pay $174 per month. That represented a 50% increase over the first 15 years of compliance with the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The current bill, just five years into the age of VCEA, is…
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Dominion Says VCEA Compliance Means Many New Nukes
By Steve Haner, If or when Dominion Energy Virginia complies with the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) and closes its hydrocarbon generation units, the best way to power Virginia will be a truly massive amount of new nuclear power. That comes from the latest iteration of Dominion’s ever-adjusting integrated resource plan (IRP), filed with the…