by Steve Haner
First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.ย
The projected consumer cost of Dominion Energy Virginiaโs conversion to wind and solar power rises steeply in the utilityโs latest capital spending plan. Although slightly reduced from earlier estimates, the utility told the State Corporation Commission its residential customers may see prices jump more than 50% by 2030 and 70% by 2035.
The higher consumer energy costs expected from going โgreenโ became a political talking point during the last election.ย Another effort is expected in the 2022 General Assembly to revise or repeal the Virginia Clean Economy Act.ย That 2020 legislation mandated the coming move to wind and solar and the end of fossil fuels, but it passed only narrowly on largely party-line votes.
In 2020, the Commission staff reviewed the companyโs capital plan and predicted that by 2030, a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month would pay up to $808 more per year.ย In this recent review, the projection using the SCC staff assumptions comes out to $733 more per year ($61 per month) by 2030, still a 53% increase above 2020 levels.
What changed?ย For one thing, Dominion altered the plan by removing some additional natural gas generation it was planning to build.ย The 970 megawatts of new gas plants were intended to add reliability to the system as the intermittent wind and solar plants became a larger part of the daily power mix.ย Dominion may have lowered its projected costs by sacrificing its safety net. (more…)
by James C. Sherlock
