by Steve Haner
Virginia’s major data centers could pay more for electricity and other customers less under a surprise legislative substitute that appeared in email inboxes Sunday and was rapidly approved Monday by a major Virginia Senate committee.
The proposal is politically attractive, already being touted a major consumer rate cut, but the detailed accounting analysis of whether it is fair will be punted to the Commission’s judges later this year. If the Commission decides not to agree with the politicians’ suggested allocation rules, it will take the heat, and the politicians will say they tried.
At issue is the marginal electricity price increase caused by the skyrocketing cost of future generation capacity within the PJM Interconnection regional marketplace, and the cost of large substations and power lines needed by the data centers. Under basic accounting rules for cost allocation, all the various customer classes pay a share of those.
As introduced, Senate Bill 253 from Senator Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, had nothing to do with either. Sunday, she began to circulate to fellow members of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee a drastic substitute version that was apparently drafted by Dominion Energy Virginia lawyers.
The last minute “gotcha” move had obviously been well planned, because she also distributed a letter from the State Corporation Commission staff on the way it would impact various customer classes. The data centers would see their future bills jump almost 16%, while residential customers would see about a 3% reduction, perhaps $60-65 per year if they use 1,000 kilowatt hours monthly.
