Dominion charts path to ‘net zero’ emissions
New program to help low-income Virginians install solar panels
Dominion Energy Virginia’s newest package of energy saving programs includes help for lower-income Virginians who would like to install solar panels.
The program aims to reach people who are often missed by renewable energy initiatives, chief executive officer Bob Blue told the Daily Press.
“This should help people cut their electric bills,” he said.
Dominion, meanwhile, is pushing to nail down a deal for a U.S.-flagged vessel to install its future offshore turbines, Blue said.
Dominion’s move into renewable energy, meanwhile, should see it filing by the end of the year a detailed construction and operation plan with federal regulators for its planned 180-turbine, 2,600 megawatt offshore wind energy project, 27 miles in the ocean east of Virginia Beach, Blue said.
That keeps the project on track for significant construction work in 2023 and a major ramp-up in 2024, he said.
The company’s first two pilot
project turbines already are producing electricity and once regulators approve, should start pumping that juice into Dominion’s grid.
Dominion, meanwhile, is pushing to nail down a deal for a U.S.-flag vessel to install its future offshore turbines, Blue said.
The new vessel would be larger than the Luxembourg-flagged ship that set up the first two, he added. A century-old federal law reserving freight moving within U.S. waters meant the turbines and components had to be shipped from Europe to Halifax, Nova Scotia, so that the Luxembourgeois ship could legally pick them up and carry them directly to Virginia waters.
Securing a U.S.-flagged ship, or an exemption to that federal act, is critical to Dominion’s hopes to establish Hampton Roads as a center for the wind turbine business for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
With the continuing decline in the cost of solarand wind-generated energy, Dominion believes its push into renewables makes sense, Blue said.
“We don’t have any issue with distributed solar ... but the fastest way to get to renewables is utility-scale plants,” like the 20-megawatt plants Dominion plans to build on 234 acres on West Road in Chesapeake and on 224 acres on Farmville Lane in James City County’s Norge area.
Dominion expects its solar panel program will cost $31 million over five years, Dominion Energy Virignia President Edward Baine said.
Under the plan, Dominion expects to end up installing panels for 1,665 customers. The plan, along with 10 other energy-saving programs to help residential and business customers reduce their bills, is subject to State Corporation Commission approval.
All in all, if approved, Dominion thinks the net impact of those programs on all customers’ bills, not just participants in the programs, will amount to a savings of about 10 cents a month on a typical residential bill.
“Renewables, solar and wind, and storage, with our base load nuclear plants that provide about a third of our energy, and some natural gas are all part of getting to net zero” carbon emissions, Blue said.
Dominion expects the percentage of future electricity coming from natural gas-powered generators will decline, but expects that Virginia will need new natural gas-fueled facilities in the future, said chief operating officer Diane Leopold.
So far, battery storage, such as the 2-megawatt lithium-ion battery Dominion wants to install at its New Kent County substation, can’t hold more than four to eight hours worth of electricity, she said.
Even Dominion’s giant 3,000 megawatt Bath Pumped Storage facility — which uses a large reservoir near the West Virginia line, replenished every night, to power a hydroelectric plant during the day — can’t carry the state past more than a half day if the sun is hidden or the wind isn’t blowing. Dominion is working on plans for a similar, but probably somewhat smaller, facility in the western part of the state.
The big advantage of gas powered generators is that they can start quickly to fill any shortfalls if solar or wind facilities aren’t producing enough power, Leopold said.
Because solar panels and wind turbines can’t produce power steadily — clouds, nightfall and calm weather all affect them — Dominion is investing hundreds of millions in sensors and other equipment to measure and manage its system to make sure there’s enough power coming in to meet instantaneous changes in demand.
Its smart meter program, with installation ongoing in Hampton Roads, is part of that effort. Dominion hopes to convince the SCC this year that the long term benefits of the program outweigh the short term costs it would like to recover from ratepayers, Blue said.
Commission staff, along with the Office of the Attorney General’s consumer counsel and environmental groups have opposed Dominion’s earlier efforts to recover those costs.