Dominion Energy Virginia has laid out a long-term plan to meet rising power demand in the state, particularly from data centers.

The utility filed its 2024 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with the Virginia State Corporation Commission and the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

The IRP projects a more than 100 percent increase in electricity usage in the next 15 years, driven primarily by forecasted data center load growth across the state.

As a result, the company's service area is expected to see annual energy demand rise by 5.5 percent over the next decade.

In 2023 alone, Dominion connected 15 data center campuses, adding a total capacity of 933MW to the grid. By August of this year, the company had already linked 14 additional campuses, representing 949MW, and expects to add two more campuses before the year ends, pushing the total capacity to 1GW by 2024.

Looking ahead, according to the IRP, Dominion is currently studying 7.5GW of demand, at the Substation Engineering Letters of Authorization (SELOAs) stage. SELOAs are contracts requesting the Company to begin the necessary engineering for new distribution and transmission infrastructure required to serve a new data center project.

Additionally, the company has 5.8GW of demand tied to Construction Letters of Authorization, which are contracts that allow the physical build-out of the necessary distribution and transmission infrastructure.

Neither are guaranteed projects, but would see developers pay Dominion back for any work carried out if they pull out.

Dominion has also secured 8GW of contracted capacity through Electric Service Agreements with data center customers through 2032. These long-term contracts require customers to consume enough electricity to cover the distribution infrastructure cost, with minimum usage thresholds per account.

The actual demand could be even higher, as these contracts don't include data centers that are still in early development phases and have not yet executed formal service agreements. This pipeline signals massive growth in energy demand for the Virginia market, highlighting the need for significant new capacity to power the expanding data center industry.

To meet this rising demand, the IRP has set out an “all-of-the-above" approach, which includes increasing power generation from every source, extensive grid upgrades, and energy efficiency programs to maintain grid reliability while meeting unprecedented growth in power demand. The plan was developed in line with grid operator PJM's forecast for energy demand over the coming decades.

The plan's power generation profile is largely derived from carbon-free sources, representing 80 percent of the overall capacity.

This includes 3.4GW of new offshore wind, in addition to the 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project currently under development off the coast of Virginia Beach. 12GW of new solar capacity, representing a 150 percent increase to the 4.75GW currently in operation, 4.5GW of new battery energy storage capacity, and a plan to integrate small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) starting in the mid-2030s.

This week, Amazon signed a memorandum of understanding with Dominion to explore rolling out SMRs in Virginia, potentially brining around 300MW to the state.

The remaining 20 percent of the planned power generation will come from natural gas, which is expected to act as a backup energy source for intermittent renewable energy sources.

"No single energy source, grid solution, or energy efficiency program will reliably serve the growing needs of our customers. We need an 'all-of-the-above' approach, and we are developing innovative solutions to ensure we deliver for our customers,” said Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia.

In a separate filing, Dominion proposed upwards of 1GW of new solar in Virginia. If approved, Dominion's solar power in operation and development will surpass 5.7GW in Virginia.

Dominion has invested extensively in the state's transmission grid to support this new capacity, including 123 new projects completed in 2024. These include 90 miles of transmission lines and 13 new substations.

Earlier this month, Dominion, FirstEnergy, and American Electric Power signed a joint planning agreement to develop proposals for new regional transmission projects in the PJM market. These projects include the construction of several new 765kV, 500kV, and 345kV transmission lines across Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia.

By dramatically increasing renewable energy generation, including offshore wind, solar, and battery storage, alongside natural gas for reliability, Dominion aims to ensure a stable and sustainable power supply for the data center industry's rapid growth.

However, the reaction to the plan has not been entirely positive.

American environmental organization the Sierra Club has panned the plan, with its director of its Virginia Chapter, Connor Kish, stating: “If Dominion Energy and Big Tech’s expectation is that the people of Virginia will pay for their new methane power plants, pay to keep fossil fuels running longer, pay for the cost of complying with federal law, when each plant must close by 2045, so they can earn sky-high profits, they need to go back to the drawing board.”

There are also concerns that, despite plans for massive increases in power generation, this will not meet expected demand. The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) has contended that Virginians could see their electricity bills double over the period laid out in Dominion’s plan due to the billions it is expected to cost for the new renewable and transmission infrastructure to support the plans set out in the IRP.

“The energy demand forecast in the plan is more than 100 percent of what Dominion currently generates and will require the equivalent of 10 new nuclear plants to meet projected needs,” said Chris Miller, president of the PEC.

Due to these concerns, the Virginia State Corporation Commission has required Dominion to supplement its IRP with a least-cost alternative plan that does not include data center load growth.

In addition, Dominion must also prepare a Virginia Clean Economy Act compliant plan that does not include data center load growth and will isolate how much of the IRP buildout is needed to serve data centers.