CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Environmental groups across Virginia are expressing concerns with Dominion Energy’s 15-year integrated resource plan (IRP), taking issue with the company’s use of fossil fuels and the cost of electricity for customers.
“We’re concerned that Dominion published a plan that does not retire any of its polluting, carbon-emitting power plants in Virginia and also proposes to build several new gas-fired power plants that are going to pollute the air,” Appalachian Voices Director of State Energy Policy Peter Anderson.
On July 15, the Virginia State Corporation Commission deemed Dominion’s IRP ‘legally sufficient,’ but called on Dominion Energy to make adjustments to its planning in the future.
Anderson expressed concerns that Dominion Energy’s 15-year plan doesn’t lay out a clear path to long-term, carbon-free energy reliance.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act requires electric utility companies, Dominion Energy, to retire all carbon-emitting production plants by 2045, just six years after the timeline described in Dominion Energy’s IRP.
“We don’t have any transparency into, you know, if the plan stops in 2039 – there’s this sort of cliff in 2045 that is looming," Anderson described. “What is the plan for when that happens?”
Aaron Ruby, Dominion Energy director of Virginia and Offshore Wind Media, provided the following statement to 29News regarding the IRP:
“Power demand is growing at historic levels in Virginia. Our customers are using 5% more power each year, which means we need to generate more power. We’re focused on serving our customers’ growing needs with reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy.
Most of our new power comes from carbon-free sources like offshore wind and solar. We’re building the largest offshore wind project in the country, and we have the third-largest solar fleet. We also need natural gas in the mix because renewables are not always available. That’s the balanced, diverse mix that will deliver increasingly clean energy while also making sure we have enough reliable power for our customers.
We’re always focused on keeping our rates affordable and delivering exceptional value for our customers’ dollar. Our residential rates remain below the national average, and they’re projected to grow by less than 3% a year, which is lower than normal inflation. At the same time, we’re delivering more reliable service by burying power lines in the most outage prone areas. That’s substantially reducing storm-related outages and shortening restoration times for our customers."
Communications Director for the Sierra Club’s Virginia Chapter Tim Cywinski says that the plan falls short for customers and the environment by utilizing energy infrastructure that is more costly than investments in renewable, clean energy.
“Not only is Dominion relying on fossil fuel projects that come with the tradeoff of making people sick, they’re also a lot more expensive than a lot of clean energy projects that we could be building out instead,” Cywinski said.
Cywinski and Anderson say data centers are the primary reason for increases in power demand in Virginia, the rise Dominion’s plan works to accommodate.
“Data centers are almost exclusively the cause for increased energy demand, which translates into increased energy bills,” said Cywinski. “Dominion is just using them as an excuse to build more fossil fuel projects.”
Anderson says Dominion Energy’s 15-year plan is just that — a plan. He says no binding decisions have been made regarding the projects the company outlined in its IRP.
“We want to have a good plan because, as the saying goes, ‘if you fail a plan, you’re planning to fail,’” Anderson said. “We really need a plan to get to zero carbon while keeping the lights on, emphasizing reliability and cost.”