While Dominion stressed the RFP is not a commitment to build an SMR at North Anna, the company said it is an important first step in evaluating the technology and the North Anna site.

The company announced the news at an event at North Anna. Company leaders were joined at the event by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia State Senator Dave Marsden, Virginia State Senator Mark Peake and Louisa County Board of Supervisors Chair Duane Adams, among other local and state leaders.

“For over 50 years nuclear power has been the most reliable workhorse of Virginia’s electric fleet, generating 40% of our power and with zero carbon emissions,” said Robert M. Blue, Chair, President and CEO of Dominion Energy. “As Virginia’s need for reliable and clean power grows, SMRs could play a pivotal role in an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to our energy future. Along with offshore wind, solar and battery storage, SMRs have the potential to be an important part of Virginia’s growing clean energy mix.”

“The Commonwealth’s potential to unleash and foster a rich energy economy is limitless,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “To meet the power demands of the future, it is imperative we continue to explore emerging technologies that will provide Virginians access to the reliable, affordable and clean energy they deserve. In alignment with our All-American, All-of-the-Above energy plan, small nuclear reactors will play a critical role in harnessing this potential and positioning Virginia to be a leading nuclear innovation hub.”

The company also announced that it intends to seek rider recovery of SMR development costs in a filing with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) expected in the fall. This step was enabled by bipartisan legislation passed by the Virginia General Assembly earlier this year.

The legislation contains cost caps limiting current SMR development cost recovery to no more than $1.40 per month for a typical residential customer. The company said it anticipates its initial request will be “substantially” below that limit.

State regulators approved Dominion Energy’s long-term energy storage proposals last week, as Appalachian Power Company is seeking bids for a swath of renewable electricity sources, marking the advancement of renewable energy projects at Virginia’s two largest electric utilities.

The approval for Dominion is seen as a critical next step in supplying electricity to the grid in the coming years, when renewable sources like solar and wind won’t be producing electricity through storage technology that is more capable than the traditional technology more widely used today. 

Appalachian Power Company’s request for projects comes as the utility, which primarily serves the Southwest region of the state, continues its work to transition to renewable energy sources as part of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a 2020 law that aims to decarbonize the electric grid by mid-century.

Dominion’s approval

Toward the end of last year, Dominion filed its application for approval of the three projects, one of which consists of a 5 megawatt iron-air battery and a 4 megawatt zinc-hybrid battery at the utility’s Darbytown Station in Henrico County. 

The other two projects consist of a 2 megawatt lithium-ion one at the utility’s training center in Chesterfield County and a 1.5 megawatt nickel-hydrogen one at Virginia State University.

Altogether, the three projects would join 16 megawatts-worth of battery projects already approved under a pilot program, capped at 30 megawatts, to develop energy storage projects granted to Dominion through the 2018 Grid Transformation and Security Act, Virginia’s last major legislative overhaul to the electric grid prior to the VCEA.

But what’s different with the Darbytown and VSU projects is that they would dispatch energy for durations up to 100 hours for one and 16 for another in Henrico County, and 10 hours at the school, rather than the usual four-hour duration of lithium-ion batteries.

“Two of the pilots not only involve alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, but some of the new technology that will be tested could offer much longer battery discharge times,” Dominion spokesperson Tim Eberly stated. “That’s very important because we need to be able to store energy from solar and wind for when our customers need it the most.”

Regulators approved the projects after some questions from the Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Counsel, which is charged with advocating for ratepayer protections on behalf of the public. 

Assistant Attorney General John Farmer questioned Brandon Martin, Dominion’s manager of business development, during a hearing on the proposals on how the most expensive of the previously approved projects cost $26 million, and the 100-hour Darbytown one is estimated to be $70 million, despite materials for the latest projects being non-rare earth metals and sourced domestically.

“When you look at [a lithium-ion project], you’re roughly 48 megawatt hours of [duration]. It’s a four hour system,” Martin said during the hearing. “This is 510 megawatt hours [of duration]. So drastically different duration of a battery, and that’s where your cost is drastically different.”

Regulators noted the projects would come with an economic impact for the state, the application stated, though specifics were not provided.

The approval also came after regulators reviewed a report from the Department of Environmental Quality to implement environmental protections, such as delineating, or identifying, where wetlands are in relation to the projects. 

The projects would come online by 2026 in Henrico County, the third quarter of 2025 in Chesterfield and in 2027 at VSU. Reports on the effectiveness of the pilots would be due by March 31 annually.

Appalachian Power Company seeking applications

Appalachian Power is seeking bids for batteries and several different types of renewable energy technologies. The company has already met an 8% renewable requirement in 2023 and expects to make a 10% requirement in 2024.

The first bid package Appalachian seeks is to develop 800 megawatts of wind and/or solar generation, co-located with stand alone battery sources. The utility wants to acquire projects, through a purchase and sale agreement, that are in Virginia or on an eligible site in West Virginia, in accordance with a recently passed law. Projects must be at least 50 megawatts in size for wind and solar, and 10 megawatts in size for battery storage, and be operational by the end of 2028.

The second bid proposal is seeking up to 300 megawatts of solar and/or wind resources through a power purchase agreement, or PPA, a way to acquire electricity by buying it from a third party developer and then deliver it to customers without directly owning the generation facility. 

Environmental and ratepayer advocates have encouraged this business deal because of a lower-cost option it affords customers, rather than a utility building a new source on their own. The projects must be at least 50 megawatts in size for wind and 5 megawatts in size for solar, and also be operational by the end of 2028.

The third set of bids Appalachian Power seeks are for renewable energy certificates, or RECs, that are created when one megawatt hour of electricity is generated and sent to the electric grid from that source. The REC is able to be sold from the generator to the receiver so that the company acquiring it can count it toward its renewable energy goals. Appalachian Power is allowed to acquire RECs for compliance with the VCEA.

“The advertised RFPs play an important role in helping us meet our clean energy commitments,” said Aaron Walker, Appalachian Power president and chief operating officer, in a statement. “These projects will also support local communities by generating jobs and [a] tax base.”  

The proposals must be submitted by July 16.

The utility currently owns one five megawatt solar project in Amherst, and has a PPA with five wind farms and three other solar farms, spokesperson Teresa Hall stated. Appalachian Power has a PPA contract with 10 other solar projects that are not yet in service. 

Two wind projects approved by the SCC but also not yet in service will be owned by Appalachian power, as well as a battery-energy storage project still needing approval from regulators.

“We are making steady progress with our projects,” Hall said.

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The statement is another reflection of the significant load growth in Dominion’s territory that has accelerated in recent years, largely driven by data centers and their AI computing needs.

Dominion has connected 94 data centers totaling over four GW of capacity over the last approximately five years, Blue told investors. The utility’s territory includes Northern Virginia, which is the largest and most dynamic data center market in the world.

Blue said the utility expects to connect an additional 15 data centers in 2024.

Dominion has not only seen a larger number of data center customer requests in recent years, but the size of each facility request (in terms of MW) has grown larger. Blue said historically, a single data center had a demand of 30 MW or more. More recent requests indicate a demand of 60-90 MW, or greater. Now, he said data center campuses with multiple buildings could require several gigawatts.

Blue told investors each facility’s ramp schedule to reach full capacity has also accelerated.

In the U.S. alone, data center demand is expected to reach 35 GW by 2030, up from 17 GW in 2022, McKinsey & Company projects. Grid operators and utilities are projecting significant load growth driven by electrification, new manufacturing and data center development. This is especially true throughout the PJM Interconnection. Dominion Energy’s service territory is located within the PJM footprint.

According to the company’s annual report filed with regulators earlier this year, data centers represented 24% and 21% of Dominion’s electricity sales in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

“The concentration of data centers primarily in Loudoun County, Virginia represents a unique challenge and requires significant investments in electric transmission facilities to meet the growing demand,” the company said in that SEC filing.

Acquisition of the projects will support the company’s most recent Integrated Resource Plan. The projects are also meant to help the company achieve the requirements of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) and its commitment to Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Proposals will be accepted on a continuous basis throughout the year. The company is interested in proposals for five categories of development assets:

• New photovoltaic (PV) solar
• New PV solar generation co-located with energy storage
• New onshore wind
• New onshore wind co-located with energy storage
• New stand-alone energy storage

In the solar category, one new aspect of this year’s RFP is that Dominion Energy is seeking proposals within its service territory for non-residential rooftop solar development or mechanically complete projects, specifically on commercial, industrial and government-owned structures. The company is particularly seeking rooftop solar projects, less than 3 MW, in Virginia’s urban centers to reduce the load on the electric grid.

For other solar proposals, the company is seeking both utility-scale projects that are greater than 3 MW, as well as distributed projects that are 3 MW or less. The company will only consider facilities located in Virginia. For distributed projects that are 3 MW or less, the facilities must be located within Dominion’s service territory where there are location grid benefits to DEV customers.

As in last year’s RFP, proposals for mechanically complete projects that are 5 MW or less will be accepted. The company is also encouraging the submission of solar and onshore wind projects on previously developed sites, such as former landfills or industrial uses.

All participating bidders must register by submitting an Intent to Bid Form and an executed Confidentiality Agreement (CA). The Intent to Bid Form, CA and other additional information on Dominion Energy Virginia this RFP can also be found on the company’s website.

Small cracks have been found a half-dozen times in the past 20 years in pipes that carry fuel to emergency generators that provide cooling water for a reactor if electricity fails at the V.C. Summer plant near Columbia, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The agency issued what it calls a preliminary “yellow” warning to plant owner Dominion Energy last week.

It is the second most serious category and only seven similar warnings have been issued across the country since 2009, nuclear power expert David Lochbaum told The State newspaper after reviewing records from federal regulators.

A crack first appeared on a diesel fuel pipe in 2003, and similar pipes have had other cracks since then.
During a 24-hour test of the system in November, a small diesel fuel leak grew larger, according to NRC records.

The agency issued the preliminary yellow warning because of the repeated problems.

The commission’s ruling is not final and Dominion will have a chance to explain what happened, utility spokesperson Darryl Huger wrote in an email

Dominion has already started to put in place a plan to improve the reliability of the backup system and like all nuclear reactors there are multiple backup systems in case any component fails, Huger said.

“With a commitment to continued safe operations, we are inspecting and maintaining our generator and related components. We will continue to keep the NRC updated on our future strategy to further enhance our diesel generators,” Huger wrote.

Virginia-based Dominion hasn’t been the only owner of the plant. SCANA built and started the plant in 1984. The South Carolina company had plans to build two more reactors, but billions of dollars of cost overruns forced it to abandon the project in 2017 and sell to Dominion.

Dominion has recently requested to renew the license for the nuclear plant for an additional 40 years.
Longtime nuclear safety advocate Tom Clements told the newspaper the pipe problems should mean a lot more scrutiny by regulators.

“This incident serves as a wake-up call to fully analyze all such systems prior to a license-renewal determination,” Clements said in an email.

The seven projects include two under operation, one under construction and four under development:

• Pleasant Hill Solar: 20 MW project located in the City of Suffolk, Virginia, which came online in April.
• Watlington Solar: 20 MW project located in Halifax County, Virginia, which came online in June.
• Wythe County Solar: 75 MW project located in Wythe County, Virginia, which is in construction and is expected to be online in 2024.
• Switchgrass Solar: 69 MW project located in Suffolk County, Virginia, which is in development.
• 360 Solar: 52 MW project located in Chesterfield County, Virginia, which is in development.
• Groves Solar: 15 MW project located in Westmoreland County, Virginia, which is in development.
• Harrisonburg Solar: 15 MW project located in Rockingham County, Virginia, which is in development.

RWE Clean Energy operates a renewable energy portfolio of about 8 GW installed capacity and says it is the second largest solar owner and operator in the U.S.

A separate RWE project, the 80 MW Water Strider Solar project in Halifax County, Virginia, also has a PPA with Dominion Energy and came online in the first half of 2021.

“While recent reporting has shown PPA pricing trending upward, customers, like Dominion, show a strong commitment to lock in the long-term benefit of fixed pricing,” said an RWE spokesperson July 18.

Renewable Energy World just reported that solar power purchase agreement prices could be stabilizing in North America after years on the rise.

While this pilot will focus on hydrogen use in homes and businesses, Dominion Energy is also focused on hydrogen blending to help decarbonize power generation, as well as manufacturing and transportation. This is the second of three pilots taking place companywide, with the other two in North Carolina and Utah.

At Dominion Energy’s Boston Heights Ohio Technical Training Center, the utility plans to test a 5% hydrogen blend to determine if hydrogen use is safe and compatible with natural gas-burning residential appliances. The next phase of testing may involve blending in a small (residential/commercial) modernized system over a multi-year period.

Dominion Energy Ohio hopes to prepare its entire distribution system to be hydrogen-ready by 2030.

In power generation, fuels like hydrogen and ammonia can be used in gas turbines for decarbonization and to increase power system flexibility. Hydrogen produces zero carbon emissions when combusted as a fuel source for electric generation.

A newly-formed coalition of some of the largest utilities in the U.S. will pursue a “six-state hydrogen hub” in the Southeast and plans to apply for funding from an $8 billion U.S. Department of Energy program.

The coalition includes Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Louisville Gas & Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company (LG&E and KU), Southern Company, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), along with Battelle and others, according to an announcement Nov. 1.

Other members of the group will include hydrogen users from a variety of industries in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Many believe hydrogen is poised to play a major role in addressing climate change. In power generation, the advantages of hydrogen include fuel flexibility through the ability to blend hydrogen with natural gas, fuel security through integration with hydrogen storage and the flexibility to follow loads from variable generation.

Major OEMs like GE, Siemens and Mitsubishi Power have been focusing their efforts on hydrogen combustion in gas turbines, particularly for large-scale generation.

MORE: Should we just burn hydrogen for electricity?

“By working together, the coalition can focus on developing scalable, integrated projects at key locations across the entire Southeast in support of these carbon-reduction goals and encourage the broad-based development of a regional energy ecosystem that will allow members to deploy hydrogen as a decarbonization solution for customers and communities,” said a joint release from the utilities.

DOE’s $8 billion regional hydrogen hub program comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in 2021.

According to program criteria, hubs would need to demonstrate the production, processing, delivery, storage and end use of clean hydrogen.

Hydrogen hubs would be sited in different regions of the U.S. DOE said it envisions selecting between 6-10 hubs at a total of $6-7 billion, depending on the number, quality and funding needs of applications received. The remaining $1-2 billion could be reserved for future hub launches or other supporting activities.

To the maximum extent possible, the DOE would choose projects based on several objectives:

-At least one hub would produce hydrogen from fossil fuels, one hub from renewable energy, and one hub from nuclear energy.

-At least one hub would demonstrate the end-use of clean hydrogen in the electric power generation sector, one in the industrial sector, one in the residential and commercial heating sector and one in transportation.

-Each hub would be located in a different region of the United States and leverage energy resources abundant to that region, including at least two hubs in regions with abundant natural gas resources.

-DOE would give priority to hubs likely to create opportunities for skilled training and long-term employment to the largest number of residents in the region.

Dominion Energy is buying a second utility-scale battery project from energy storage developer East Point Energy.

At 15.7 MW/62.8 MWh, the Shands energy storage project would be one of the largest standalone storage projects in Virginia when it becomes operational in 2023.

In September 2021, Dominion Energy announced it was acquiring the 20 MW/80 MWh Dry Bridge energy storage project from East Point. That project is expected to come online by the end of 2022. Both Shands and Dry Bridge are part of a 2020 RFP issued by the utility.

The Shands project was also among the nearly two dozen solar and energy storage projects proposed by Dominion Energy in recent filings with Virginia regulators.

If approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC), the projects will provide more than 800 MW of electricity.

Dominion Energy plans to add nearly 1,000 MW in solar and energy storage in Virginia. The expansion was approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC).

The approval includes 15 utility projects, in addition to power purchase agreements (PPAs) with 24 other projects. The additions are expected to be finished in 2022 and 2023.

Dominion plans to add 11 utility-scale solar generating facilities totaling approximately 561 MW, one solar facility paired with energy storage totaling around 150 MW (100 MW solar, 50 MWh storage) and one stand-alone energy storage resource totaling close to 20 MWh. Two other distributed solar projects total less than 4 MW. A full breakdown of the projects is below.

The PPAs include five utility-scale solar projects totaling approximately 137 MW, two PPAs for utility-scale solar paired with storage totaling around 26 MW of solar and 13 MWh of storage, one for stand-alone storage representing around 20 MWh and 12 PPAs for 16 small-scale distributed solar projects totaling about 33 MW.

According to documents filed with the commission, Dominion expects an annual need for renewable energy certificates (REC) to exceed 19,000 GWh in 2030, and that grows to over 29,000 GWh in 2035.

In April 2020 Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Economy Act into law, requiring most of the state’s six remaining coal-fired power plants to close by the end of 2024. Dominion anticipates retiring its coal-fired Chesterfield Units 5 and 6 and Yorktown Unit 3 by 2023.