Currents Energy Industry Insights: V 8, Issue 6, June 2024 | Spilman Thomas and Battle, PLLC

“Dominion Energy, the state’s largest utility, says new natural gas plants will be needed to meet growing electricity demand, and the state is examining how this booming sector will impact Virginia’s transition to renewable energy.” .

Why it’s important: The article shows that Virginia, specifically Dominion Energy’s service area, has the largest concentration of data centers in the country, and that growth is expected to skyrocket over the next 15 years. Data centers operating 24/7/365 use a lot of energy, which can be a challenge, especially for utilities looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Dominion proposes to solve this load growth problem (at least in the short term) by building new generation based on natural gas, which many groups oppose. In addition to opposition to new natural gas power plants, the article also highlights growing opposition to data center expansion more broadly.

The increase in data center workload isn’t unique to Virginia; such growth is taking place – or has the potential – across the country, and there are concerns about the cost consequences if a utility expands its system in anticipation of a load that never materializes. For this reason, the article notes that some parties are pushing for more detailed modeling by the utility to better predict the future, but also to enable a broader range of solutions to data center loads beyond simply building more natural gas. — Carrie H. Grundmann