In the last decade, many states have made energy policy decisions that prioritize building new renewable energy sources, namely wind and solar, over more reliable forms of power. Often, this comes in the form of renewable portfolio standards that mandate a certain portion of the energy mix comes from wind and solar. 

One such state is Virginia. The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) is a renewable portfolio standard that requires that the state’s largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power, both use 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Despite this mandate, the state’s utilities are doing what they must to maintain a reliable grid. 

Earlier this year, Dominion Energy announced plans to build a new peaking natural gas plant to help meet the state’s growing demand for power. Peaking power plants, otherwise known as peaker plants, are power plants that are able to ramp up and down to compensate for the intermittency of other sources of electricity. Dominion may need to construct up to 8 more similar plants over the next decade and a half. 

The state’s unique position in the technology sector may contribute to demand growth. Northern Virginia is currently the number one state for data centers in the US. This gives the state immense importance as artificial intelligence and other data intensive applications develop further and are used more widely. With this economic boon comes an obligation for the state’s utilities to rise to the occasion. That means maintaining reliability.

Dominion Energy is Virginia’s largest utility company. The fact that it’s choosing to invest in new natural gas peaker plant capacity right now is a promising sign for those concerned with reliable electricity. 

Jeremy Slayton, a spokesman for Dominion, acknowledged the importance of maintaining reliability. “On the hottest and coldest days of the year, when people are running their air conditioning, they’re running their heater, and that demand goes up and up and up,” and went on to say, “And if we can’t meet that demand that means there will be blackouts.”

Even though the state’s growing need for reliable power is difficult to dispute, the move has faced significant opposition from environmentalists and some lawmakers. In March, a coalition of nine lawmakers, including seven Delegates and two Senators, signed a letter opposing the peaker plant because it, “runs counter to the measures the Commonwealth has taken recently to lower carbon emissions and to diversify energy production and storage”. What these lawmakers fail to understand is that the measures that the Commonwealth has taken run counter to reliably keeping the lights on.

In my recent paper, “How to Keep the Lights On”, I outline 9 principles for a reliable electric grid. The fourth principle is “Government should not dictate the electricity mix.” This is because renewable portfolio standards like the VCEA are prescriptive rather than realistic policies. They assume that a power mix can be made to work because the government decided that it would. This is far from the truth. 

A reliable electrical grid doesn’t just come about on its own. It’s the result of good decision making and a prudent understanding of tradeoffs (in addition to the physical infrastructure that makes it up). The problem is that for years now the rhetoric and decision making of lawmakers has been out of line with reality and reliability. 

It’s great to see Dominion make a decision that focuses on reliability, even in the face of opposition.