Virginia To Offload More Grid Costs Onto Data Centers

"The decision is expected to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in transmission costs away from the public."

"The data center capital of the world is shifting more transmission costs onto the energy-hungry sector.

Virginia regulators have ordered Dominion Energy, the commonwealth’s largest utility, to create a process for assigning to data centers the direct costs of their electric service, such as substations built to meet their power demand. Those costs are currently spread across all ratepayers.

Regulators also opened the door for data centers to pay more of the grid’s transmission costs further upstream, such as regional projects that are harder to tie to any specific demand source."

Adam Aton reports for E&E News August 6, 2026.