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Tag: energy

Dominion debuts first offshore wind farm in U.S. federal waters

Dominion Energy has completed construction on two massive wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach (Photo by Beth Cooper)
Dominion Energy has completed construction on two massive wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach (Photo by Beth Cooper)

After nearly a decade of planning, Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. is on the verge of harnessing offshore wind power following the installation this month of two turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach.

Standing approximately 600 feet tall, the 12-megawatt turbines are the cornerstone of Dominion’s $300 million Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project. Located on a 2,135-acre site, the project is the first offshore wind farm approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and installed in U.S. federal waters and the second wind farm to be built in the U.S. The utility will test the turbines next month before fully energizing them late this summer. At its peak, they will power 3,000 homes.

Gov. Ralph Northam joined state and local officials, industry representatives and stakeholders Monday for a boat excursion 27 miles off the coast to take an up-close look at the massive turbines. Before embarking on the tour, Northam signed landmark offshore wind legislation during a ceremony in front of the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach. He said the legislation will continue to position Virginia as a national leader in offshore wind development as the state builds a new industry with thousands of clean energy jobs.

The legislation establishes a target for Virginia to generate 5,200 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2034, ensuring projects demonstrate significant economic development for the state, while ensuring healthy competition for the procurement of offshore wind projects that bring diverse companies to Virginia. The bills also create a pathway for project developers to recover expenses wile minimizing costs to utility customers.

Gov. Ralph Northam signs offshore wind legislation at a June 29 ceremony in Virginia Beach (Photo by Beth Cooper)
Gov. Ralph Northam signs offshore wind legislation at a June 29 ceremony in Virginia Beach (Photo by Beth Cooper)

Additionally, the governor signed a bill creating Virginia’s first Office of Offshore Wind within the Department of Mines Minerals and Energy (DMME). The new office will oversee state policies in support of offshore wind, work with stakeholders and coordinate economic development opportunities for the offshore wind industry.

“These new laws are the cornerstone of our offshore wind investment,” Northam said. “With this legislative package, Virginia will continue to position itself as the best state in the nation for offshore wind.”

Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, partnered with Dominion to build the pilot project on offshore land leased by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. Earlier this year, Denmark-based Ørsted agreed to lease a portion of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal from the Virginia Port Authority to stage materials and equipment for the project, as well as for its other East coast offshore wind projects. Hayes Framme, Orsted’s government relations and communications manager, praised the state’s legislative focus on offshore wind energy. “In the last six months, Virginia has gone from playing catchup to other states to having one of the most aggressive offshore wind policies in the entire country.”

Dominion will use information gained from the development, installation and operation of the pilot project to build what is planned to be the largest wind farm in North America, erecting 200 turbines in 112,800 acres of federal waters adjacent to the test turbines. Scheduled to be built in three, 880-megawatt phases from 2024 to 2026, the $7.8 billion commercial project will be capable of generating 2,650 megawatts of zero-carbon electricity at peak wind speeds to power 650,000 homes.

The turbines are expected to last 25 years, says Mark Mitchell, Dominion’s vice president of generation construction, and withstand severe storms, including hurricanes. “We looked at every hurricane in the history of this area and calculated what could withstand the wind speed and waves consistent with a Category 5 hurricane.”

Charlottesville energy companies move toward merger

Charlottesville-based energy company Tiger Fuel Co. announced Friday it has acquired 40% of the shares of Altenergy Inc., which is also based in Charlottesville — a first step in the acquisition of Altenergy to be completed in March 2021.

“Altenergy and Tiger share a common commitment to doing the right thing for our customers, our employees and the communities we serve,” Paul Risberg, president and founder of Altenergy, said in a statement.  “This exciting step will allow Altenergy to continue to adapt and create value for our customers, while increasing opportunities for our employees.”

Founded in 1982, Tiger Fuel distributes petroleum products to Exxon, Shell, BP, Citgo and has its own private label, Excel. Altenergy builds solar energy systems for commercial and residential customers and has customers in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Idaho and Missouri.

The goal for the acquisition is to diversify Tiger Fuel’s renewable energy offerings by building more solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, which turn sunlight into usable energy. 

“Our companies are closely aligned and we are committed to spearheading energy solutions that make the Charlottesville and Albemarle County area a great place to raise families and grow businesses,” Tiger Fuel President Gordon Sutton said in a statement. “As we expand, our goal is to be a leader in this community in terms of reducing our carbon footprint and achieving local climate action.”

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Rappahannock Electric Cooperative CEO to retire

Fredericksburg-based Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) announced Tuesday that president and CEO Kent D. Farmer, who has served since 2004, will retire Aug. 1. He has been with the company for a total of 41 years.

“It has been my honor and privilege to lead REC and to serve its membership for the past 16 years,” Farmer said in a statement. “Having served two decades in executive leadership, now it is time for me to allow the next generation of leaders to take the helm.”

John Hewa. Photo courtesy Rappahannock Electric Cooperative

John D. Hewa, REC’s vice president of corporate services and chief operating officer, will succeed Farmer as president and CEO. There has been a multiyear succession plan in place, Christopher G. Shipe, chairman of the REC board of directors, said in a statement. 

Hewa has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the electric utilities industry. He has previously served as CEO of electric cooperatives in Texas and Florida and as vice president of research, engineering and technical services at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in Arlington.

REC serves 22 Virginia counties and has more than 17,000 miles of power lines across the state. It has more than 170,000 customers.

 

 

 

 

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Offshore wind components headed from Europe

Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. and Denmark-based Ørsted A/S announced Tuesday that major components of its $300 million Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project are being shipped to North America — which is on-schedule, despite the pandemic.

Major components for the two, massive 6-megawatt Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbines from Denmark and Germany are en route via cargo ship to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The turbines will be 600 feet tall when measured from the ocean’s surface to the tip of the top blade — or taller than the Washington Monument — and will be able to power 3,000 homes at peak production, according to Dominion.

Construction is expected to begin later this spring and the turbines are scheduled to be in operation by the end of the year.

Dominion selected the Spanish renewable energy engineering company in January as the preferred turbine supplier for its offshore wind farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Construction for the pilot project began in June 2019, when Dominion broke ground on an onshore power substation for the turbines near Camp Pendleton.

“This is a monumental step toward the installation of the first offshore wind turbines in federal waters, which will deliver clean, renewable energy to our customers,” Mark D. Mitchell, Dominion vice president of generation construction, said in a statement. 

The pilot project is the first phase in Dominion’s plan, announced in September 2019, to build a $7.8 billion, 220-turbine wind farm off the Virginia Beach coastline by 2026. The wind farm, which would be the largest in the U.S., is part of Dominion’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its electricity generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050. The entire project would produce enough zero-carbon electricity to power 650,000 Virginia homes.

Dominion this month is also conducting ocean surveys to map the seabed of the 112,800-acre lease area to determine impacts to ocean and sea life and develop the project’s Construction and Operations Plan to be submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

Governor signs clean energy legislation

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sunday that he has signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act into law, requiring state electricity providers to become 100% carbon free by 2050.

The legislation sets a 2045 carbon-free deadline for Virginia power operations for Dominion Energy Inc. and a 2050 deadline for Appalachian Power. It also requires virtually all coal-fired electrical plants to close in Virginia by 2024. The law advances Dominion’s proposal to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach and encourages the development of solar and onshore wind assets. Under the new laws, Virginia will also join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

“These new clean energy laws propel Virginia to leadership among the states in fighting climate change,” Northam said in a statement. “They advance environmental justice and help create clean energy jobs. In Virginia, we are proving that a clean environment and a strong economy go hand-in-hand.”

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State extends ban on utility service disconnects

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Virginia State Corporation Commission has extended the ban on utilities disconnecting electricity, water, sewer and gas services until June 14.

“While we fervently wish otherwise … it appears that the devastating economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are unlikely to abate significantly” by mid-May, when the order was originally scheduled to end, according to a statement from the SCC.

Despite the order, the SCC warns customers that they will still owe payment for utility services received after the disconnect bans expires.

“If such bills are never paid, the costs of these unpaid bills … do not disappear; they are shifted to other customers, who themselves may be struggling to make ends meet in the economic catastrophe caused by the pandemic,” the SCC wrote in the order.

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SCC rejects large portion of Dominion’s grid upgrade plan

UPDATED MARCH 27, 10 A.M.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) on Thursday put the brakes on a major portion of Dominion Energy Inc.’s proposed $7 billion, 10-year plan for electrical grid upgrades, saying it was “due to the projected heavy costs to customers without adequate benefits.”

The SCC approved some parts of the plan’s initial phase, estimated to cost at least $212 million, including strengthening cybersecurity  protections, improving service reliability
through grid hardening and launching a new computer platform to support customer service. Any costs exceeding the estimate provided by Dominion must be validated by the SCC before the commission will allow Dominion to recover the costs from its customers.

“The approval of a new customer information platform and investments in targeted grid improvements will allow us to give our customers more options to access their energy usage information and bills while we provide even more dependable service,” said Dominion spokesperson Rayhan Daudani.

However, the state regulatory agency rejected Dominion’s initial-phase plan to spend $752 million installing “smart meter technology” and related upgrades because Dominion “failed to justify what would be gained by the projected level of investment,” the SCC said in statement. Dominion has gradually installed 485,000 smart meters in Virginia, but wanted the SCC to allow it to seek cost recovery in the form of additional rate increases to expand the technology to all of its 2.3 million Virginia customers.

In its plan submitted to the SCC, Dominion had said that electric customers who declined the smart meter installation would have had to pay a one-time $84.53 opt-out fee as well as an ongoing $29.20 monthly fee for not having the smart meter. The fees were intended to recover costs associated with maintaining the older meters, the company said.

If Dominion’s grid-upgrade plan had been approved in its entirety, the rollout would have cost Dominion customers almost $7 billion over 10 years, according to the SCC.

“It is profoundly disappointing that the SCC failed to support the benefits that can only be made possible by full deployment of the proven, industry-standard smart meter technology now used by all customers in North Carolina, D.C. and Maryland. In addition, intelligent grid devices enable the effective integration of renewables and further support reliability improvement for our customers. We are reviewing the [SCC’s] final order to determine our next steps and remain committed to the future and a transformed grid benefiting our customers across the commonwealth.”

Speaking about the decision, the SCC said, “We recognize the importance of the plan’s overall objectives. We have approved those elements in which the heavy costs to customers have been adequately justified by the overall benefits to customers, and we have denied approval to those elements whose heavy costs were not justified by the overall benefits to customers.”

The SCC found that Dominion “failed to justify its smart meter proposal with a plan, including a well-crafted rate design, that could maximize the potential for benefits to customers through energy efficiency and demand response pricing (time of use rates).”

 

Dominion Energy donates $1M to coronavirus aid, suspends service disconnections

The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation has donated a total of $1 million for coronavirus aid, which will go to the American Red Cross and local organizations in the 18 states where Dominion operates. It has more than 7 million energy customers.

The charitable foundation for Richmond-based Dominion Energy has specifically committed $250,000 to the American Red Cross and $750,000 to nonprofits for developing response plans.

Dominion is evaluating how the money will be allocated to local nonprofits over the next few days, Dominion spokesperson Audrey Cannon says.

“We are helping customers and communities we serve during this difficult time by maintaining reliable service and providing support and relief to those affected,” Dominion Energy Chairman, President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said in a statement. “Our contributions to these organizations will help provide the means to lessen the impact of this outbreak.”

Dominion says that it has reviewed staffing plans and has secured supplies to ensure that customers will have continuous reliable energy. The company has suspended any energy disconnections to customers who had not paid. 

Following Dominion’s announcement Thursday, the State Corporation Commission directed all regulated electric, natural gas and water companies in Virginia to do the same until the coronavirus outbreak subsides.

Dominion says that customers who had previously been disconnected for not paying can contact the company to be reconnected. The company will also waive late fees and reconnection fees.

Winds of change

In September, Dominion Energy Inc. unveiled an ambitious, $8 billion project to erect the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the Virginia Beach coast. If all goes to plan, it will power 650,000 Virginia homes by 2026.

This year, Dominion expects to bring its offshore wind pilot project online and start ocean survey work on the commercial project, which would include 220 massive wind turbines built in three phases. Rising 600 feet above the surface, each turbine would be taller than the Washington Monument.

The first group of turbines — producing 880 megawatts of energy — would be operational in 2024, with additional turbines going into service in 2025 and 2026, ultimately producing 2,600 megawatts. Dominion would be the first electric utility to have sole ownership of an offshore wind farm.

The commercial offshore wind farm is planned for a 112,800-acre site adjacent to Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, a pilot venture in which two, 600-foot-tall, 6-megawatt research wind turbines, manufactured by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, will be installed 27 miles off Virginia Beach this spring. Dominion has contracted with Danish firm Ørsted, one of the world’s largest wind-energy developers, to install the turbines on 2,135 acres of federally owned waters leased to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. In January, Ørsted agreed to lease part of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal from the Virginia Port Authority to stage materials and equipment for the CVOW project, and Dominion selected Siemens Gamesa as its preferred turbine provider for the wind farm.

The $300 million offshore pilot project is projected to be operational by the end of the year, generating 12 megawatts of energy at peak winds, enough to serve 3,000 customers. In October, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management awarded final approval to the pilot, the only offshore wind project permitted in federal waters.

Dominion will use information from the pilot to design and build the wind farm — with hopes for Virginia to become a national leader in the technology, management and deployment of offshore wind energy.

The initiative is in line with Gov. Ralph Northam’s directive to state agencies to develop plans to produce 30% of their electricity from renewable resources by 2030 and be carbon-free by 2050.

“Governor Northam has made it clear that Virginia is committed to leading the way in offshore wind and renewable energy, and we’re rising to the challenge,” says Jeremy Slayton, media relations representative for Dominion Energy.

The company’s offshore wind projects are part of its comprehensive clean energy strategy aimed at achieving net-zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions by 2050.

Currently, turbines and other components used to operate offshore wind projects are manufactured in Europe and shipped to the United States. However, as more commercial wind farms come online, a U.S. supply chain is expected to emerge. Virginia could play a major role in the industry due to its pro-business climate, deep-water ports free of overhead obstructions, maritime workforce and dock capacity, according to a 2018 report prepared by consulting firm BVG Associates.

The United States’ first offshore wind farm began operating off the coast of Rhode Island in 2016, and Maryland and Massachusetts also have similar projects in development.

Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, predicts that wind energy will have a huge economic impact on the state and the region in the next three to five years, noting that the $70 billion industry could bring 14,000 jobs to Virginia.

“Literally, you’re creating an industry out of whole cloth off the East Coast,” Smith says. “There’s opportunity for Hampton Roads to become the hub for the supply chain for this industry. Ninety percent of the skills needed to put the offshore wind industry into play are skills that we already have in the shipyards and ship repair. These are highly skilled jobs like welders and machinists.”

Dominion, Savion close solar power purchase deal

Kansas City-based solar and energy storage development company Savion LLC has finalized a 20-megawatt (MW) power purchase agreement with Richmond-based Dominion Energy Virginia Inc. for the $30 million Westmoreland County Solar project, the company announced Thursday.

Construction is expected to begin this spring and commercial operation is targeted to begin at the end of 2020. The Westmoreland County project is one of three projects that Savion is expected to construct in Virginia this year. The three projects combined cost approximately $150 million and will result in 115 MW of solar power.

Virginia Business reported in September 2019 on the other two projects that Savion is working on in Virginia. Dominion Generation, a subsidiary of Dominion Energy Inc., acquired two solar projects from Savion. The 15 MW Myrtle Solar project, is located on about 120 acres in Suffolk and is expected to generate power in the second quarter of 2020. The other project, the 80-megawatt Greensville Solar facility, will occupy more than 1,000 acres in Greensville County near Emporia. It is expected to be completed in late 2020. Power generated at the two sites will go to telecommunications company T-Mobile USA Inc. under long-term contracts.

“We are excited about the continued growth of the renewable energy industry in Virginia, which is demonstrated by corporate and utility investments in solar energy over the past several years,” Jeff James, senior vice president commercial transactions for Savion, said in a statement. “Our strong partnership with Dominion Energy enables our projects to support their sustainability goals as they work to add renewable energy to the grid.”

Dominion is working on other solar projects across the state. On Feb. 13, the company announced it would build a solar facility in Greensville County — its eighth facility to be dedicated to Facebook Inc. On Jan. 29, Dominion made public its partnership with Amazon.com Inc. to build a solar plant in Pittsylvania County, which is set to power one-third of the county’s operations and the e-commerce giant’s forthcoming headquarters in Arlington.

Dominion has committed to having 3,000 MW of solar and wind energy in operation or under development by 2022. The energy company has more than 7 million customers in 18 states and has more than $100 billion in assets.