RICHMOND, Va. — A new report from Clean Virginia claims Dominion Energy bills are rising faster than inflation, but the utility company strongly disputes the findings.
The Clean Virginia report points to four main causes for the rising bills: an outdated regulatory framework, dependence on fossil fuels, tariffs and the rollback of federal tax credits, and the rapid growth of data centers.
"We've heard from so many people around Central Virginia that they are having real problems paying those bills," said Clean Virginia Executive Director Brennan Gilmore. "They are having to choose paying their electric bill or another bag of groceries, or what bills they are going to pay, so it was really important to look at what's going on here."
Gilmore added, "Data centers use a tremendous amount of energy. The largest ones use as much as produced by one nuclear plant, which is crazy when you think about it."
Dominion Energy disagrees with the report, stating the company has invested in reliability and clean energy to keep costs down.
"This report is just factually wrong. For more than a decade, our residential rates have remained below the national average, and they’ve gone up substantially less than the rate of inflation. Electricity prices went up across the country this winter due to the coldest weather in decades and the rising cost of fuel and grid equipment. We’ve responded by offering our customers more assistance and savings options than ever before. We also supported legislation to provide additional relief, including millions more in annual bill assistance and home energy efficiency upgrades, " Craig Carper, a Dominion Energy spokesperson said.
"We are committed to keeping our rates affordable as we make historic investments to strengthen reliability and deliver increasingly clean energy. These investments are delivering more value for our customers, including 50% less outage time during major storms, the largest offshore wind project in the country and the largest solar fleet in the 13-state PJM region. We have also put in place some of the strongest protections in the country to prevent data center costs from being passed onto residential customers ... data centers are not the central driver in the increasing cost of energy, it’s inflation for supplies and fuel," Carper said.
For residents like Page Schalow, a single mother of two, the rising costs are a daily struggle.
"If it keeps going up like this, I don't know what I'm going to do. My wages aren't rising but my bills keep rising," Schalow said.
Her winter power bills ranged from $350 to $400, and she is now paying about $50 more than in previous years, even in warmer months.
"Which is pretty significant. You know $50 a month is absolutely not nothing," Schalow said.
Schalow says she does everything she can to conserve energy, but her bills remain high.
"I would love to see my bills not continually increasing. I would love to see all these hardworking folks that I know not be squeezed absolutely to death," Schalow said.
New laws are taking effect in Virginia aimed at shielding customers from fuel spikes and preventing costs tied to data centers from hitting residents.
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