by Steve Haner
Is Virginia really the number one importer of electricity, the state most dependent upon others to keep the lights on and the servers humming? Yes and no.
The go-to source of data on the electricity industry (and other energy industries) is the federal Energy Information Agency, or EIA. EIA data shows Virginia had the dubious distinction in 2024 of being the state with the widest disparity between the amount of electricity produced within its borders and the amount electricity used by its consumers, a shortage of 35 million megawatt hours (MWh).
As noted in yesterday’s post on the gas plant lawsuit, as a percentage of total electricity sales, five other states and the District of Columbia had even larger electricity deficits. Virginia being number 7 out of 51 on a percentage basis is hardly good news, either.
The quick assumption (and I made it, too) is that those data indicate that Virginia imported 35 million MWh in 2024, but the EIA data shows our full import total in 2024 was 45 million MWh. When you look at the EIA full tally of imports, California is the state with the largest volume of electricity brought in from other locations (including Mexico in California’s case).
But the political narrative that we are the largest importer is deeply embedded now, without any nuance. Perhaps the nuance doesn’t matter. Virginia was the most dependent on imports to serve Virginia residents, but not the largest importer.
As you will read below, that deep deficit is more than three decades old. Virginia remains electricity poor and the gap is probably wider now than in 2024.
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