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Tag: energy

Washington Gas gifts Virginia Tech $430,000 for STEM education

Washington Gas gifted Virginia Tech $430,000 to help increase pathways into higher education in STEM disciplines, the university announced Monday.

“Washington Gas is honored to partner with Virginia Tech and promote STEM education across the commonwealth of Virginia. Together, our program will help shape future generations of students and workers exploring energy in school studies or as an occupation,” Washington Gas President Blue Jenkins said in a statement.

The two entities will provide professional learning programs for career and technical education and other science, technology, engineering and math teachers and administrators. The programs will help them develop and implement 10 energy-focused high school courses in their school divisions. Eight of the new courses were designed by representatives from the energy industry, community colleges, nonprofits, James Madison University and Virginia Tech under the Virginia Department of Education’s leadership.

Students can participate in any two or more of the courses to prepare for college engineering programs while achieving industry certifications.

Tech’s Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity and its School of Education will support the STEM outreach program. The program builds on Tech’s Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab in Northern Virginia, which has hosted more than 20,000 students and teachers since 2016.

“The Washington Gas leaders have already helped to expand our programs and outreach. We know the outcomes and impacts over the next three years will only grow,” said Jim Egenrieder, founding director of the Virginia Tech Thinkabit Lab and the leader of the College of Engineering’s STEM education outreach in the D.C. area, in a statement. “

Tech has also begun developing energy-related tech modules for elementary and middle school and developed new STEM initiatives and youth leadership programs supporting Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church and Fairfax County schools.

Port of Va. hires offshore wind development VP

Patrick Kinsman, former CEO and commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Norfolk District, has been hired as the Port of Virginia’s new vice president of offshore wind development.

Kinsman will oversee Portsmouth Marine Terminal’s conversion to a logistics hub. Simeans Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A. is investing $200 million to build the first U.S. offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility there.

Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc., which is building its $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast, is leasing 72 acres at Portsmouth Marine Terminal to use as a staging and preassembly area for the massive foundations and components for the 180 turbines expected to be installed when the 2.6-gigawatt offshore wind farm is completed in 2026.

“This is an opportunity to really help develop a new industry in Virginia,” said port spokesman Joe Harris.

Youngkin chooses natural resources secretary

Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday that former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler is his pick for state secretary of natural resources. At the same time, Youngkin chose Michael Rolband as director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

“Virginia needs a diverse energy portfolio in place to fuel our economic growth, continued preservation of our natural resources and a comprehensive plan to tackle rising sea levels. Andrew and Michael share my vision in finding new ways to innovate and use our natural resources to provide Virginia with a stable, dependable and growing power supply that will meet Virginia’s power demands without passing the costs on to the consumer,” Youngkin said in a statement.

Wheeler served in the Trump administration as the 15th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2019 to 2021. He started at the EPA as a special assistant in its Pollution Prevention and Toxics office during the George H.W. Bush administration and became the agency’s deputy administrator in 2018. Wheeler’s EPA tenure was marked with some controversy, including an attempt to prohibit the EPA from utilizing research studies without publicly available raw data. The proposal was opposed by 69 leading scientific and medical organizations, editors of major scientific journals and a bipartisan group of former EPA administrators. Under his administration, the EPA also diminished mercury cleanup regulations and decided against increasing standards for fine soot pollution.

Environmental groups expressed concern with Wheeler’s selection. “Anyone with this record is simply not the right fit for Virginia,” said Chesapeake Climate Action Network Fund’s Virginia Director Kim Jemaine in a statement. “During his extensive career as a henchman for the coal industry and the Trump administration, Wheeler has made it clear that he is willing to risk the health and safety of Virginians in order to serve the interests of bad actors. We should take this record at face value.”

Previously, Wheeler had been the team leader and a principal of then-FaegreBD Consulting’s energy and environment practice group and counsel at Faegre Baker Daniels law firm. He also co-chaired the firm’s energy and natural resources industry team.

Before joining the firm in 2009, Wheeler was the majority staff director and chief counsel, and minority staff director, of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Prior to that, he worked for the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands and Nuclear Safety for six years. Wheeler is a past chairman of the National Energy Resource Organization and was a Stennis Fellow in the bipartisan leadership development program for senior congressional staff members.  Wheeler holds a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, an MBA from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Rolband, who taught a wetlands and stream restoration class at Cornell University from 2017 to 2020, founded Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc., a natural and historic resources consulting firm. He managed about 160 employees, and over almost 30 years, the company provided services and permit approvals for more than 8,000 projects. Rolband also established Resource Protection Group Inc., a nonprofit that has awarded more than $5.4 million in grants to date for wetland and steam restoration research projects. He holds a bachelor’s degree, an MBA and a master’s degree in engineering from Cornell.

The great divide

Virginia’s business community faces a strangely familiar and yet uncertain state government headed into the 2022 General Assembly session, which begins Jan. 12.

Republicans rolled to victories across the board in the November 2021 election as Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin led a GOP sweep of all three statewide offices, and Republicans also won a narrow 52-48 majority in the House of Delegates. That leaves Democrats with just a 21-19 majority in the Virginia Senate — and newly elected Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears holds the ability to break any potential tie votes.

A divided state government is nothing new for Virginia. Since 2000, Republicans held unilateral control of state government only twice, from 2000 to 2002 and from 2012 to 2014. Democrats won unilateral control in 2019, ushering in sweeping policy changes over the past two years that transformed the regulatory atmosphere around everything from energy generation and legal marijuana to gambling and the balance between labor and business owners.

Youngkin, Gilbert and other Republicans already have identified laws passed over the last two years they’ll seek to roll back. That includes a 2020 act to transition Virginia entirely to clean energy by 2050; Youngkin has said he’ll use executive action to withdraw the state from a regional carbon market. Walking back actions by the 2020-21 Democratic majority will require flipping a senator, however.

Speculation on likely Democratic swing votes has centered largely around state
Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, and his push to bring a casino to economically challenged Petersburg in light of Richmond passing up the opportunity in a failed November 2021 referendum. Due to the chamber’s ideological diversity, however, the GOP will likely target multiple Democrats for support depending on the issue.

Youngkin arrives as a largely unknown quantity. He has held no prior elected office, and while he’s discussed numerous issues with ramifications for business, he has offered few policy specifics. Political observers have gleaned clues from his early appointments to Cabinet and agency positions. By contrast, however, his governing partners in the House of Delegates have well-established records. Aside from the last two years, Republicans have controlled the House since 2000. The top two leaders there, Speaker Todd Gilbert of Woodstock and Majority Leader Terry Kilgore of Gate City, respectively have 16 and 28 years of legislative experience.

“We still have the problem of a Democrat-controlled Senate, and are there enough folks … willing to work with us on issues like taxation and regulation and workforce and things that are all going to contribute to keeping our business climate competitive and positive?” Gilbert says. “Much of this comes down to how many folks in the state Senate are willing to work with us to achieve these goals.”

Adds Kilgore: “We’re going to be playing a lot of defense as usual with Senate bills we do not support, but we’re also going to be helping Gov.-elect Youngkin with his agenda. We also want to roll some of the legislation back that has been passed over the past couple of years. I’m not saying we’ll have the votes for all those, but hopefully we can come together with reasonable minds in the Senate and work toward some positive outcomes.”

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats say they’re focusing on issues that directly affect families.

“In the upcoming 2022 legislative session, Virginia Senate Democrats are focusing on one thing: What happens at Virginians’ kitchen tables?” says Jacqueline Hixson Woodbridge, communications director for the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus. “The heart of our homes is the center of so much of our daily lives: paying bills, completing homework, taking care of our health and so much more. Every day,
Virginians have been facing difficult realities throughout the COVID pandemic — which has further exposed many existing problems families face and exacerbated others. Senate Democrats will continue to build on the economic growth, social equity and fairness achieved in the last several years to make sure everyone in the commonwealth has the best opportunity at success possible.”

Some Democratic groups already are fundraising off their constituents’ fears that Republicans will push through a Texas-style abortion law. In an email, Whole Woman’s Health Alliance referenced oral arguments before the Supreme Court about the Texas law, warning that the Virginia GOP’s November wins make the commonwealth “a target for similar attacks that could overturn years of progress made to expand abortion rights and access.”

In remarks made to reporters after the election, Gilbert deemphasized abortion.

“You didn’t hear our caucus running on those things,” Gilbert says, referring to abortion and voting rights. “We’re focused on things we think were important. We realize we’re in a divided government right now and a lot of the issues people want to talk about, especially in the media, are important to selling papers and selling ad space, but you’re not hearing that from us.”

Instead, Gilbert says, “we’re working in earnest to make sure that we have a robust agenda to make our schools better, to make our streets safer, to make life more affordable for Virginians. That’s what we ran on.”

Subdued Assembly?

Those comments seem to suggest the state GOP is following the tenor of Youngkin’s campaign, says Larry Sabato, founder and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

“I can already tell from the comments that Todd Gilbert and others have made that [Republicans] clearly want to keep a lid on the crazier ideas,” Sabato says. “Youngkin got elected by corralling the crazy. My sense is they’ll adopt the most palatable agenda possible.”

Ongoing redistricting issues and Virginia’s constitutional limit on governors to a single consecutive term mean Youngkin may have only a limited time frame to make an imprint on state government, says Mark Rozell, political scientist and dean of policy and government at George Mason University.

Some analysts speculate that the redistricting process, which is in the hands of the Supreme Court of Virginia, could trigger new House of Delegates elections this November. A federal three-judge panel will decide whether delegates must run in 2022 based on the redrawn districts. And if that impacts the balance of power in the General Assembly, it could result in Youngkin facing a Democratic majority legislature after only a year in office.

“Democrats are not going to want to give him any major legislative victories early on, and they will try to do all that they can to hold their caucus together,” Rozell says. “Given the reality of divided government and possibly an even more divided government after next year, he needs to start working in a bipartisan fashion from the beginning.”

That could include championing politically popular measures such as eliminating the sales tax on groceries or suspending the state excise tax on gasoline sales, Rozell says.

“The key is that he begins his administration with some significant legislative victories that enable him to build over time,” Rozell says.

Lobbyists also foresee a largely static General Assembly 2022 session after the whirlwind, marathon sessions of the last two years.

“Most folks I talk to have this cautious optimism that there won’t be a whole lot of stuff done this year,” says Greg Habeeb, president of Richmond-based lobbying and marketing firm Gentry Locke Consulting, and a former Republican delegate. “Nobody thinks you can do anything except at the margins.”

However, former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, a member at the Cozen O’Connor law firm, foresees potential for bipartisan support of legislation to improve Virginia’s business climate.

“Any time you’re talking about making Virginia more friendly for business, or you have a business that wants to come here and needs legislation passed for a variety of reasons, the Senate is likely to come along,” says Kilgore, twin brother of Del. Terry Kilgore, the new House majority leader. “The Senate has overall been more business-friendly even under Democrats than the House has been under Democrats.”

The day after the November 2021 gubernatorial election, panelists at Virginia Business’ 15th annual political roundtable event expressed similar views.

“To me, if you really start thinking about the message aspects of this [gubernatorial] campaign, education and workforce was an important part of [Youngkin’s] campaign,” observed Barry DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. “I think we should see an agenda from [Youngkin] that focuses on workforce and education at a high level. I also think you’re going to see some initiatives around tax reform.”

“How do we grow our economy?” asked James W. “Jim” Dyke Jr., senior state government relations adviser with McGuireWoods Consulting. “How do we make sure that everyone in Virginia has the opportunity to get a quality education, whether it’s a four-year education or two-year or [a] certification? … Once you are elected, you have a responsibility to represent every Virginian and do what’s in the best interest of the commonwealth of Virginia to move us forward.”

Nevertheless, lawmakers in the newly divided General Assembly must also take action to follow up on legislation passed in 2021, noted Amanda Wintersieck, assistant professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Marijuana legislation needs to be re-passed in order to take effect,” Wintersieck explained during the political roundtable. “The negotiations on licensing and possession haven’t happened yet. … At the same time, there was some pushback against the high-speed rail expansion to D.C. among the Republican coalition. We could see a reversal of what we thought were fairly set and done legislative pieces during this last session.”

No lockdowns

One topic Youngkin likely will address soon in his administration will be the coronavirus-related restrictions implemented by his predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam. “We will not have shutdowns, we will not have lockdowns — we will be open,” Youngkin said during his Nov. 15, 2021, speech at the Virginia Tourism Summit.

During the campaign, Youngkin said he would end school mask mandates, avoid adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required vaccines for K-12 students and would roll back vaccine mandates for state employees.

Terry Kilgore says he expects GOP-led legislation around vaccine mandates and pandemic shutdowns. “I think you’ll see some bills on keeping us from shutting down again and bills that don’t allow you to fire someone because they haven’t had a vaccine,” Kilgore says. “If the vaccine mandate goes through in Southwest Virginia, our hospital system is going to be decimated, our [manufacturing] plants will be decimated.”

Southwest Virginia’s coalfields already have been disrupted by market and regulatory shifts. The Democrat-led General Assembly accelerated those shifts with the Virginia Clean Economy Act of 2020, which aims to phase out coal to generate electrical power by 2045, as well as incentivizing vast swaths of solar and wind power. The legislation received bipartisan support, so it’s unlikely to be rolled back outright.

But Republicans see room for movement around the edges, particularly when it comes to consumer costs.

“Everyone says, ‘Hey, we want clean energy,’ and they say that up until they get their [electric] bill,” Kilgore says.

Habeeb anticipates more conversation about ratepayer impacts and whether to give the State Corporation Commission more oversight. But Rozell warns that Republicans should be careful not to tamper too much.

“Going after clean energy initiatives and trying to repeal some of the actions of the Democratic-led previous administration will put [Youngkin] in the crosshairs of a number of big partisan battles,” Rozell says.

Joint efforts

Republicans have little choice but to address open questions about marijuana. Democrats legalized adult possession and cultivation of recreational marijuana in 2021 but left a gaping policy void around the development of taxation and a commercial marijuana market. Incoming House Speaker Gilbert has referred to the issue as a “live grenade rolling around.”

Adds Gilbert: “The Democrat-led General Assembly legalized marijuana possession and even personal growing of marijuana, and they did absolutely nothing to lock in any regulatory environments, tax structure, oversight, you name it.”

In an interview with Virginia Business (see Q&A, Page 24), Youngkin says he wouldn’t attempt to roll back legalization of personal possession of marijuana, but he feels that the effort to create a legal retail market for marijuana needs further work.

Echoing Youngkin’s sentiments, House Majority Leader Kilgore says, “Do I think we have the votes to turn it back and make it illegal? No. But we do need to fix it if there’s going to be a retail market. We’ve got to make sure that retail market works, and it doesn’t set up a black market where the commonwealth is missing the taxes on it.”

Gentry Locke Consulting has worked with companies in the cannabis space, and Habeeb thinks a GOP-led repeal of marijuana legislation is very unlikely.

“No one in the General Assembly wants to unwind that stuff,” Habeeb says, but “all of the regulatory, all the businesses, all the licensure, all the tax revenue is totally [incomplete]. Probably a lot of Republicans don’t like legalization in the first place. The only thing worse is legalization with a black market. Many don’t want to deal with it, but they have to do something.”

The issue with the largest short-term implications for the General Assembly is one over which it may have little control: redistricting.

In 2020, Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment to take redistricting from lawmakers and turn it over to a bipartisan commission. The commission gridlocked on plans, however, sending the question of congressional districts and state House and Senate districts to the Virginia Supreme Court. In late October, a federal judge responding to a lawsuit filed by former Democratic Party Chairman Paul Goldman appointed a three-judge panel to determine whether delegate seats will be up for election again in November, under newly drawn districts.

Jerry Kilgore says the open questions about redistricting and its potential impact on the Assembly’s balance of power will affect the session’s tone.

“The business community needs stability and probably doesn’t want to see the General Assembly have to run again in ’22,” Kilgore says. “We saw how much money [state candidates] spent this year. They’d be spending all that money in ’22 and in ’23 and have no stability in leadership. People would be constantly questioning whether the Democrats are going to take the majority back.”

Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this story.

Q&A: Quebec official discusses Va. trade mission

Quebec’s delegate general in New York, Martine Hébert, visited Virginia this week on a trip to strengthen economic relations between her province and the commonwealth.

Appointed in August by Quebec Premier François Legault and based out of New York, Hébert is responsible for promoting the province’s economic interests in the mid-Atlantic region. She previously served as the province’s delegate to Chicago.

Bilateral trade in goods between Quebec and Virginia stands around $1 billion a year, according to Hébert’s office. Quebec companies with a strong presence in Virginia include IT business and consulting service CGI, Intertape Polymer Group Inc., Alimentation Couche-Tard (which owns Couche-Tard, Circle K, Ingo and Kangaroo Express) and professional services firm WSP Global Inc. Virginia companies with significant operations in Quebec include Reston-based contractor General Dynamics Corp., McLean-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp. and Henrico-based The Brink’s Co.

During her three-day trade mission, which took her to Richmond and Norfolk between Dec. 14 and Dec. 16, Hébert met with representatives from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Port of Virginia, the Virginia Department of Energy, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, Dominion Energy Inc. and other Virginia stakeholders.

Hébert spoke with Virginia Business on Thursday at the close of her trade trip. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Virginia Business: What are some similarities you’ve seen between Virginia and Quebec?
Martine Hébert:  The province of Quebec is almost the same size as Virginia in terms of population. We have many similarities with Virginia, such as a strong primary sector: mining and agriculture. . We have a lot of agriculture also, which is also the case in Virginia. Both regions have high tech industries such as aerospace and IT, as well as highly strategic energy, logistics and infrastructure sectors. And both have strong commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I think that we can build on those similarities, and relationships that we already have and encourage the development of mutually beneficial partnerships.

VB: What are some similarities that could lead to increased partnerships?
Hébert: Quebec is [one of the largest producers] of hydroelectricity. Almost 99% of our electricity is renewable and clean energy. More than 95% of it is produced with hydroelectricity. … We’ve been partnering with many states in the mid-Atlantic region [already].

I know that Virginia has very ambitious plans … in terms of wind power energy production. It is fantastic to see the projects that are going to come. There are some partnerships also to establish between Quebec and Virginia in that sense.

In terms of renewable energy, the Quebec government has also invested a lot into development and innovation in wind power and solar, so we have very good players in Quebec. Actually, my trip here was the occasion to invite some of the key players in wind power energy in Virginia to our [event dedicated to] wind power … that we will hold in New York in January. [There are] lots of occasions to start the discussion. … How can we contribute and how can we learn from each other and contribute to each other’s success within this [energy] transition?

Martine Hébert (L) and Jennifer Palestrant, chief deputy of the Virginia Department of Energy, met on Hébert’s trip.

VB: What other opportunities for trade does Quebec offer for clean energy?
Hébert: Wind power is only one example, but when you talk about wind power, you talk about intermittent energy. Intermittent energy means also that you have to have storage capacity.

In Quebec, we are … very innovative in terms of energy storage. We have companies like EVLO, who are specialized in this, our division of the Hydro-Québec [public electrical utility].

We’re starting the discussion. These are only a couple of examples of change that are possible. We will see how we can make this happen and how we can contribute to each other’s success by maybe digging a little bit more into where are the areas for collaboration and what are the needs for collaboration that we can fill with Quebec expertise.

VB: Are there opportunities to strengthen ties outside of wind?
Hébert: We also have all of the electric transportation field. … We have major key players who are already implemented in the United States and are selling products to the U.S. … You have some Quebec electric buses in many, many states and many big cities around the United States. … We have companies who are into charging stations, specialized vehicles like electric school buses. Of course, all of the vehicles that are produced in Quebec and in the United States by these players, both Lion [Electric Co.] and Nova Bus [owned by Volvo Buses], for example, they have plants and facilities in the United States to produce these vehicles.

The other big opportunity is in defense. As I said earlier, I think that the pandemic also showed us the importance of securing our supply chains. Critical minerals are one of the main concerns of many, many countries. Fortunately, we have a lot of critical minerals in our soil in Quebec. How can we better partner with our U.S. partners to secure the supply of critical minerals and make sure that we have a large American supply chain that is protected in North America? That’s another example.

Also, we have some of the major world players. I’m thinking about CAE [Inc.], which, originally, it was a Quebec company, but you have CAE USA which is now here and is very active in the defense industry, providing, for example, training with flight simulators. … These are also areas where we can certainly continue to contribute together and reinforce via these originally Quebec companies who are now implemented in the U.S.

VB: We hope you’ve enjoyed your trip and had some good hospitality.

Hébert: What I would say as a conclusion of my trip is that I saw everywhere Virginia is for lovers, but I would say Virginia is for Quebecers also. We were so warmly welcomed by all of the people who organized this trip. It’s amazing. We are known in Quebec for our hospitality. I think that we’ve found our match.

Dominion reports increases in diverse hiring over past 5 years

Dominion Energy Inc. released its first public diversity, equity and inclusion report on Friday, reporting increases in gender and racial diversity among employees hired between 2016 and 2020.

With a goal of reaching 40% in diverse workforce representation — meaning hires of women and non-white people — by 2026, the Richmond-based utility giant, which employs 17,000, aims to increase the percentage by 1% each year. Currently, 34.6% of its workforce is diverse, with a 2.7% increase from 2016 to 2020, according to the report.

Between 2016 and 2020, Dominion’s hiring of diverse employees increased by 13.4%, from 36.1% to 49.6%. During the same period, the company recorded increases in the following demographics:

  • 10.4% for women
  • 3.4% for Black employees
  • 2.8% for Hispanic employees
  • 1.4% for other, non-white races
  • 0.1% for Asian employees

According to the report, Dominion increased diversity at the leadership and executive levels, noting that 71% of Chair, President and CEO Robert “Bob” Blue’s direct reports are diverse. In 2020, amid widespread social justice protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Dominion pledged a six-year, $25 million commitment to support 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in states served by the utility. They include Hampton University, Norfolk State University, Virginia State University and Virginia Union University in Virginia. Dominion also created a $10 million scholarship fund for Black students and other underrepresented minorities in its service area. The Hampton Roads area was one of three regions that will receive $5 million in a two-year social justice grants initiative; Dominion contributed $2 million toward the fund.

In addition to hiring, Dominion pledged that the utility’s non-diverse prime contractors award at least 20% of all subcontracts to diverse suppliers; over the past five years, the company has averaged 10.4% growth per year in spending with diverse vendors, the report says. Also, Dominion started eight employee resource groups (ERGs) for Black, Asian and Latinx employees, as well as groups for women, LGBTQ+ employees, veterans, disabled workers and young professionals, focusing on building community and recruiting, among other goals.

“We’ve come a long way on diversity, equity and inclusion,” Blue said in a statement. “And we have more work to do. Our vision is to become the most sustainable energy company in the country, and we are in this for the long haul.”

SCC approves Dominion settlement, refunding $330M to customers

The State Corporation Commission approved a settlement with Dominion Energy Virginia in which the Richmond-based utility will refund customers $330 million and reduce rates annually by $50 million, the SCC announced Thursday.

For a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month, the rate reduction will result in a decrease of about 90 cents per month, beginning within 60 days of the SCC’s order, and residential customers will receive about $67 in refunds over the 2022-2023 period, the statement said. The utility will refund $255 million over a six-month period and $75 million over three years, according to an earlier announcement by Dominion.

As part of the settlement, the SCC authorized a rate of return on common equity (ROE) for Dominion of 9.35%, which will be used for rate adjustment clauses and for Dominion’s next triennial review.

Last month, Dominion Energy Inc. announced it had come to a comprehensive settlement agreement with the SCC and the state attorney general’s office after the utility brought in nearly $1 billion in excess profits between 2017 and 2020, according to SCC staff and the attorney general. Dominion’s return on equity rate for shareholders has been 9.2%, and it previously requested a return of 10.8%. The 9.35% rate is included in the compromise. Under the federal Grid Transformation and Security Act, enacted in 2018, the $50 million reduction in rates is the maximum allowed.

Also in the agreement is $309 million in revenue to be used to offset costs of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project off Virginia Beach, deployment of smart meters and a customer information platform.

“We thank all parties to the case for working cooperatively for a good outcome for customers, an even more reliable grid, economic development and the environment,” Dominion Energy Virginia President Ed Baine said in a statement Thursday.

Dominion offshore wind farm cost climbs to $9.8B

Dominion Energy Inc.’s offshore wind farm will cost about $2 billion more than expected, the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility’s chair, president and CEO, Bob Blue, said during a third quarter earnings call Friday.

Instead of the previously estimated $7.8 billion, the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) commercial project will cost approximately $9.8 billion, Blue said, attributing the roughly 25% cost increase to rising commodities expenses and general cost pressures across a number of industries right now amid mounting inflation. Additionally, Blue cited costs associated with the need to build about 17 miles of new transmission lines and other onshore infrastructure associated with the project.

Dominion plans to build the 180 wind-turbine farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, with construction beginning in 2024. When completed in 2026, the wind farm is expected to power 660,000 homes. The wind farm will cost residential customers about $4 per month over the estimated 30-year lifespan of the wind farm, a Dominion spokesperson said.

Dominion submitted its application for the wind farm project to the Virginia State Corporation Commission Friday. As part of the filing, Dominion is also requesting SCC approval to build the 17 miles of new transmission lines and other onshore infrastructure needed to deliver the energy generated by the wind turbines to homes and businesses across Virginia. The route chosen was the shortest of the potential routes and would impact private property the least, the utility maintains, with 92% of the route within the former Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt corridor, owned primarily by the city of Virginia Beach and/or co-located with existing Dominion Energy transmission line corridors.

Blue also outlined agreements in the competitive bidding process. Five major agreements represent about $6.9 billion, he said, and the remaining project costs are $1.4 billion for onshore transmission facilities and projected system upgrades and another $1.5 billion for other project costs including contingency onshore transmission facilities necessary to interconnect offshore generation components reliably and to maintain the structural integrity and reliability of the transmission system in compliance with mandatory North American Electric Reliability Cooperation (NERC) standards.

“We believe decisions we’re making around onshore engineering configurations will result in the best value for customers,” he said.

Last month, Dominion announced that Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A., a Spanish wind turbine company, will invest $200 million to build the first U.S. offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility at the Port of Virginia’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Siemens Gamesa will make 176 14.7-megawatt turbines to be installed in the 112,800-acre commercial lease area.

Dominion also announced other contractors on the project Friday.

“We are moving the CVOW project forward by working with industry leaders as we bring utility scale offshore wind generation to our Virginia customers,” Joshua Bennett, Dominion Energy vice president of offshore wind said in a statement. “These contracts will allow us to manage costs for the benefit of our customers and take advantage of the developing domestic supply chain to deliver on our promise to bring clean-energy jobs to Hampton Roads.”

Germany-based EEW SPC will produce steel pipe and corresponding pipe components to manufacture 176 steel monopile foundations, the largest of which will be 268 feet long and weigh 1,175 tons. EEW SPC will process more than 200,000 tons of steel and production is scheduled to begin in 2023.

Denmark-based Bladt Industries will manufacture 176 transition pieces, which weigh as much as 800 tons and bind the monopile foundation and turbine together while providing physical access to the turbines.

Bladt and Denmark-based Semco Maritime will manufacture components for the three offshore substations, which are multi-story units weighing 4,000 tons each, a topside platform with helicopter landing pad 157 feet above the water and support structures installed in the sea floor.

Belgium and Boston-based DEME Offshore U.S. LLC and Italy-based Prysmian Group, as a consortium, will provide balance of plant services, including the transportation and installation of the foundation and substation components, and install the subsea cables. DEME Offshore U.S. LLC said in a news release that the contract value is up to $1.9 billion.

Prysmian Group will also provide all of the subsea inter-array and export cables that will deliver energy to shore. The cables will be produced in Arco Felice, Italy, and Pikkala, Finland, while the inter-array cables will be manufactured in Nordenham, Germany, Prysmian said in a news release.

The monopile foundations, transition pieces and turbine components will be staged on 72 acres Dominion will lease at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, as part of a 10-year-agreement with the Virginia Port Authority. The lease is valued at $4.4 million annually and has an option for two five-year renewals.

The CVOW wind farm will help Virginia reach its target, mandated by the Virginia Clean Economy Act, of having 100% carbon-free energy production by 2045, and Dominion Energy’s goal of net zero carbon and methane emissions by 2050. President Joe Biden’s administration has set a 2030 target to have installed 30,000 megawatts of U.S. offshore wind power capacity.

The offshore wind project is expected to create 900 jobs and generate $5 million per year in local and state tax revenue and $143 million in economic benefits annually during construction, according to Dominion. During operation, it will create 1,100 jobs, generating $11 million per year in local and state tax revenue and almost $210 million in ancillary economic benefits annually.

In July, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management began its two-year permitting and environmental review of the project.

Dominion announced third-quarter earnings of $654 million and 79 cents per share, compared with a net income of $356 million and 41 cents per share for the same period in 2020. Operating earnings for the three months ending Sept. 30 were $918 million, compared with $916 million for the same period in 2020.

Siemens Gamesa to build first U.S. offshore wind blade factory in Portsmouth

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A., a Spanish wind turbine company, will invest $200 million to build the first U.S. offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Portsmouth, creating 310 jobs, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday from the Port of Virginia’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal.

Siemens Gamesa is a partner in Dominion Energy’s 2.6-gigawatt, $7.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. Expected to be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm when completed in 2026, the project will see about 180 wind turbines erected in federal waters 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast, with construction beginning in 2024. At its peak, the wind farm is expected to generate enough energy to power 660,000 homes.

Siemens Gamesa plans to invest more than $80 million of the project’s estimated $200 million budget to erect buildings and equipment at an 80-acre site it will lease at Portsmouth Marine Terminal. When completed, the facility will be capable of producing blades for 100 turbines per year, a company executive said.

About 50 of the 310 jobs being created by the turbine blade manufacturing operation will be service jobs to support the CVOW wind farm. Dominion is leasing 72 acres at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal to use as a staging and preassembly area for the project’s massive foundations and turbines.

The facility will be the first offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in the United States. 

“Virginians want renewable energy, our employers want it and Virginia is delivering it,” Northam said. “The commonwealth is joining these leading companies to create the most important clean energy partnership in the United States. This is good news for energy customers, the union workers who will bring this project to life and our business partners. Make no mistake: Virginia is building a new industry in renewable energy, with more new jobs to follow, and that’s good news for our country.”

The General Assembly passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) into law in 2020, requiring Dominion to generate all electricity produced for consumption in Virginia from renewable energy sources with zero carbon emissions by 2045.

Officials gathered at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal for Monday’s announcement included U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who spoke about how Virginia’s offshore wind project lines up with President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power in the United States by 2030. She also noted the economic impact of shifting to clean energy.

“[Biden] sees the opportunity that is presented in this clean energy economy globally,” she said. “It is [a] $23 trillion market. … [and] America is going to get a big chunk of that. We’re not going to stand by and watch our economic competitors claim that market and that means manufacturing and that means generating clean energy and that means all kinds of energy, whether it’s nuclear or wind or solar or geothermal or hydropower.”

Grandholm said the announcement Monday was symbolic for the entire country. It’s also monumental for Hampton Roads’ and Virginia’s economy.

“People are talking about long-term effects but Americans tend to think about long-term effects in one year, five years, 10 years; we’re talking about decades if not generations, generational changes for the entire area, the entire commonwealth,” said Brian Ball, Virginia’s secretary of commerce and trade. 

He and Northam said it’s a major step in diversifying the state’s economy.

“We have always been dependent on the military and government contracting and we always will be, but something we recognized four years ago is we really needed to diversify our economy,” Northam said. “We did that by bringing in companies like Amazon, Micron, Microsoft, Facebook. … Dominion Energy is doing that by bringing in Siemens Gamesa.”

Siemens Gamesa and the project’s boosters also see it as a major step in creating a supply chain hub in Hampton Roads for other wind farm projects up and down the East Coast.

“We are hopeful that as states, including Virginia, commit to offshore wind, this facility will continue to be able to supply those projects that are located in other states,” said Steve Dayney, Siemens Gamesa’s head of Offshore North America. “What is important is that there is long-term certainty for investment of hundreds of millions of dollars. … We need that long-term certainty that the demand for the product is going to be there.That’s critically important.” 

Dayney said Siemens Gamesa chose Portsmouth for the site because there’s deepwater access, no overhead obstructions, plenty of room to build and the infrastructure is largely in place, compared with other locations.

Dominion Energy Chair, President and CEO Robert M. Blue said Dominion chose Siemens Gamesa as a partner in the project because the company built the Dominion offshore wind project’s first two pilot wind turbines, which went online in 2020, and “they’re a leader in this industry.”

Having the manufacturing facility will help speed development of Dominion’s planned 180-turbine wind farm, Blue said, but he added that starting a new supply chain also takes time and investment.

“When you’re starting a new supply chain, obviously there’s time associated with building a new factory, but creating jobs here, the economic activity here is going to pay great dividends for Hampton Roads and for Virginia,” he said. “And this is an industry that’s just starting in this country, so getting early pieces of the supply chain here increases the chances that Virginia will get more of the supply chain, which will be more jobs, and then ultimately, as we’ve all learned recently, having a local supply chain can be a real advantage.”

Mars Inc. pledges to go net zero by 2050

Mars Inc. has pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its full value chain by 2050, the McLean-based global food manufacturer announced Tuesday.

The pledge is in line with the Paris Agreement to reduce global warming.

“The scale of global intervention must be bolder and faster,” Mars CEO Grant F. Reid said in a statement. “Climate change is already impacting the planet and people’s lives.”

Tuesday’s announcement marks a step up from an existing commitment Mars made in 2009 to achieve net zero in direct operations by 2040. The company’s previous pledge said it would cut emissions in its full value chain by 67% by 2050. It also reaffirmed a target to cut GHGs in its full value chain by 27% by 2025.

Mars is one of a thousand businesses around the world pledging action to get to a zero-carbon economy.

Since 2015, Mars has cut emissions in its full value chain by 7.3%, according to the company. In its direct operations, Mars has already reduced emissions 31% and is on-track to achieve is interim 2025 target (42% reduction).

Mars will develop a plan to get to net zero in 2022. One of the promises Mars put in place is an initiative transitioning to 100% renewable energy, which it has done in direct operations in 11 countries and will do so in another eight by 2025.

The company has also promised to redesign its supply chain to stop deforestation, scale up initiatives in sustainable and regenerative agriculture and challenge 20,000 suppliers to take action.

Mars has 133,000 employees and $40 billion in annual sales.