by Felix Garcia

The Virginia General Assembly convenes tomorrow for its 2025 session among the usual laments that bipartisan solutions to the Commonwealth’s biggest challenges are not possible nowadays.

But there should be one big issue upon which members of both parties in both houses can agree: Virginia uses more electricity than it creates. With more data centers coming on-line, with more to follow, the situation is only going to get worse. And businesses and consumers are the ones who’ll be paying the bill for the imported electricity required to run them.

Fixing this problem is no longer just a “challenge” but has become a business imperative for the Commonwealth of Virginia if we are to maintain our position as the best state in the nation for business.

Energy policy is at a crossroads. We can no longer wait for more studies and study commissions. We must identify solutions that will reduce the amount of expensive electricity that must be imported from other states, and we must do it now.

To do that, Artificial Intelligence is our friend!

Yes, there is one tangible key to unlocking the energy policy gridlock in the Commonwealth of Virginia: We can use AI to make data centers more energy efficient.

Innovation made possible by advances in the use of Artificial Intelligence have been perfected by Verdigris Technologies, recently named as one of the world’s Most Innovative Companies in Energy. The concept is simple: Artificial Intelligence identifies system inefficiencies in electrical usage within data centers (or any commercial or industrial smart building for that matter) which, in turn, highlights opportunities to build additional electrical capacity for the data center itself. Verdigris has actually proven its value by identifying 40% stranded capacity at T-Mobile’s data centers.

With Verdigris technology, each data center builds its own platform for energy management to identify inefficient uses of energy within the facility, captures the data, and redeploys the energy savings to other parts of the data center. Data centers build their own additional electrical capacity without having to purchase additional electricity from energy providers like Dominion Virginia Energy.

Think about the financial savings which can accrue if ways to reduce power usage during peak (and the most expensive) hours are identified and addressed in real time.

The Commonwealth of Virginia aspires to become a center of innovation in the technology-driven economy. Innovation in the energy sector will play a significant role in this effort.

Data centers are not going away. Counties that house data centers rely on the tax revenue they generate to build schools and improve roads with no additional burden on taxpayers. And none of us are giving up our cell phones any time soon.

Just yesterday, the Commission on Electricity and Utilities regulations issued its own advisory recommendations for the General Assembly to consider during the session. News coverage highlighted significant differences of opinion regarding the siting of solar farms. Resolution of these issues, as was accurately suggested by Senator Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, could take “years.”

We don’t have years.

The legislature can do something as simple as requiring each data center -– those already in operation and those to be operational in the future –- to submit a detailed plan for improving electrical efficiencies and/or provide tax breaks for data centers that demonstrate measurable savings in energy usage.

The innovative technology that will make these “plans” a gateway to energy efficiency and reduce the burden on Virginia’s electric grid exists already. Incentivizing the use of that technology is less costly and immediately available.

Felix Garcia is the Founder and CEO of AgriSun Power LLC. He is a strategic partner of Verdigris.