Virginia’s Clean Economy Act, SB 851 (2020)

Virginia’s Clean Econony Act (SB 851) requires Dominion Virginia (the state’s dominant utility) and the smaller Appalachian Power Co. to supply 30 percent of their power from renewables by 2030, and to close all carbon-emitting power plants by 2045 for Dominion and by 2050 for Appalachian. It also requires, by 2035, American Electric Power and Dominion Energy Virginia to construct or acquire 400 and 2,700 megawatts of energy storage capacity.

On May 1, 2020, Dominion Virginia filed an integrated resource plan in compliance with the legislation, proposing to add 6.7 to 18.8 gigawatts of solar, up to 2.7 gigawatts of energy storage,and up to 5.1 gigawatts of offshore wind through 2035 (up from 396 megawatts of solar, 1.8 gigawatts of energy storage and 12 megawatts of offshore wind operational or under construction).

In June, 2020, the Virginia State Corporation Commission opened a docket (PUR-2020-00120) to adopt regulations to achieve the deployment of energy storage as required by the Act.