On October 15, Dominion Energy Virginia (“Dominion”) filed its latest Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”) at the Virginia State Corporation Commission (“SCC”). The IRP is filed under Virginia Code §§ 56-597 through 56-599. In Virginia, an IRP is not a commitment to build any particular resource, but represents the utility’s general plan for meeting anticipated demand over the next 15 years.
In a press release, the company stated that “it is experiencing the largest growth in power demand since the years following World War II.” Dominion forecasts that demand for power within the company’s delivery zone will grow 5.5% annually for the next decade and double by 2039. Dominion states that the “key drivers” for the projected load growth include data center development and expected electric vehicle charging demand. The IRP states that, in order to meet this projected demand, the company “must maintain a focus on a diverse portfolio of energy supply resources” including not only “planned renewable and energy storage resources but also traditional dispatchable generation and new technologies.”
The IRP includes four Portfolios, representing alternative pathways for meeting customer demand over the next 15 years. Each alternative includes the addition of natural gas resources in 2030-2031 and small modular nuclear reactors (“SMRs”) beginning in 2035. Dominion’s IRP states that the company recently issued an RFP for an SMR development at the company’s existing North Anna nuclear site. The IRP projects that, by 2035, the monthly bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kWh could be between $214 and $315, depending on which methodology is used to calculate the bill increases.
On October 11, the SCC published an order requiring Dominion to supplement its IRP no later than November 15. The SCC stated that this supplement should include, among other things, modeling that incorporates updated PJM capacity prices as well as analyses that exclude projected data center demand growth. The SCC also directed Dominion to include a list of planned transmission projects and to indicate the cost and whether the need for such projects is “primarily being driven by data center load growth.”
The SCC has not yet established a procedural schedule for this case. Virginia law requires the SCC to review the IRP and to determine whether the plan is “reasonable” and “in the public interest.” The SCC must make this determination within nine months of the utility’s filing, or by July 15, 2025. The IRP is docketed in Case No. PUR-2024-00184.