In a rehearing request filed with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) on August 22, 2022, Dominion Energy Virginia said it will abandon its planned 2.6 GW offshore wind farm if regulators do not reverse their decision to set a performance guarantee requirement for the project.[1] The 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project will include 176 wind turbines located about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach and has an expected capital cost of $9.8 billion. On August 5, 2022, the SCC approved the project with a rate rider for recovering the cost of the project and related onshore transmission facilities. Under this decision, Dominion’s customers must be held harmless for any shortfall in energy production below the project’s expected 42% average annual capacity factor, measured on a three-year rolling average. According to the utility’s filing, “There is no precedent in the record of any utility being forced to take on an obligation of this nature to guarantee a capacity factor for its generating units over their entire life or, equally importantly, to insure against the risk of events beyond the utility’s control and its reasonable or unreasonable conduct.”
The SCC accepted Dominion’s rehearing request on August 24, 2022, and said the utility could begin recovering costs related to the project using a special rate rider. Opposing parties in the proceeding must respond to the rehearing request by September 13, 2022. The utility can reply to these submissions by September 22, 2022.