Dominion Files 10-Year Grid Modernization Plan

Dominion Energy today filed a plan with the State Corporation Commission outlining how it intends to comply with the Grid Transformation and Security Act of 2018. The filing asks the SCC to approve the programs and investments included in the first three years of a 10-year grid modernization initiative. The filing can be viewed here.

Features of the plan highlighted in a Dominion press release include:

  • $200 million in bill credits to customers, and $125 million in annual rate cuts due to tax relief;
  • Modernizing the energy grid to improve reliability, resiliency and the ability to integrate more renewable energy and emerging technology;
  • Significantly expanding the company’s renewable energy fleet in Virginia;
  • Future testing of wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach.

Dominion emphasizes that the improvements will not require any rate increases. Rather, the upgrades will be paid for through earnings over and above its normally allowed Return on Equity, which will be retained for the purposes of reinvestment in grid modernization. This particular provision, the most controversial aspect of the 2018 legislation, was criticized as a form of “double dipping” that allowed Dominion to earn money on its original investment and then to earn more money on the profits that otherwise would have been returned to rate payers. The legislation was said to have fixed the double-dipping issue, but it is not clear how that will work out in practice.

In the meantime, Virginians can look forward to aggressive investment in solar power, wind power, and energy efficiency. Dominion is committing to having 3,000 megawatts of wind and solar in operation by 2022, adding to what the company touts as the sixth largest solar fleet in the nation. (It’s not clear from the press release if that includes solar resources outside of Virginia.)

The plan asks the SCC to include the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOC) project: two experimental turbines generating 12 megawatts of power in a federal lease area about 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. Experience and data gained from operating those turbines could pave the way for widespread deployment of wind turbines in the future.

Dominion also is asking to install 2.1 million smart meters at a cost of $450 million. These meters, in conjunction with a new customer information system, will enable customers to better manage their energy bills. Additionally, the utility is proposing to spend $870 million in energy efficiency programs over the next decade. The programs are “designed to help customers save energy and manage the demand on Virginia’s electric system.” At least 5% of these programs must benefit low-income, elderly or disabled individuals, “most likely through weatherization upgrades.”

Proposed new construction and material standards will improve grid resiliency by hardening infrastructure and protecting against cyber-attacks. The burial of outage-prone distribution lines and the deployment of intelligence devices and control systems will are meant to speed the re-establishment of electric service.

There is no mention in the Dominion press release of a much talked-about pumped-storage facility in Southwest Virginia, which previous legislation had declared to be in the public interest. The pumped-storage facility would use electricity in off-peak hours to pump water from a lower-elevation containment lake to an upper-elevation lake, and then generate electric power during peak hours.

The State Corporation Commission has been skeptical of some of these investments in the past, but the Grid Modernization Act declares them to be in the public interest. It’s not clear exactly how that assertion of General Assembly priorities will play out in the SCC decision-making process. The next few months should tell the tale.