Virginia utility regulators last week authorized a separate rate category for the largest electricity consumers, including energy-intensive data centers that increasingly threaten the reliability of the U.S. grid.
The move makes it easier for Dominion Energy to charge data centers differently than other customers, like homes and industrial plants. The Virginia State Corporation Commission green-lighted Dominion’s plan Tuesday, as well as limited the utility’s planned rate hikes for residential customers to “mean monthly increases” of $11.24 in 2026 and $2.36 in 2027.
The new “GS-5” rate class applies to customers who demand 25 or more megawatts beginning in January 2027. Dominion also will require certain large-scale customers to pay a minimum of 85 percent of their contracted distribution and transmission demand and 60 percent of their generation demand — a move that aims to protect ratepayers from bearing the costs associated with the rapid infrastructure construction needed for facilities like data centers.
“This is a very important decision by the Virginia Commission,” said Mark Christie, the former Republican chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who also once served as chair of the Virginia SCC. “People look to Virginia, obviously, to see how Virginia is dealing with these issues because we are the state that is the center of data center universe.”
