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ManBMitt t1_j8o1mci wrote

Reply to comment by turnipmeatloaf in Dominion asks to reinstate surcharge for Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, boosting bills by VCUBNFO

Dominion doesn’t get to decide what their generation mix will be - that gets decided by the State Corporation Commission.

Dominion always wants to build new low-carbon energy plants, because their profit is based primarily on the size of their capital base. The more new plants they get to build, the higher their allowable profit.

The SCC’s job is to provide approval/denial to the things that Dominion wants to build, by balancing concerns such as reliability, affordability, and GHG emissions.

At the end of the day, the costs of RGGI do indeed provide and incentive to transition to low-carbon energy, because it makes green generation “cheaper” in the SCC’s decision-making calculus.

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LilWhiny t1_j8p2va8 wrote

The SCC’s hands are completely tied because decades of legislation sponsored by Dominion have declared various projects “in the public interest.” In fact, we know exactly what we are building over the next 9 years - 5.6 GW of wind and 16.1 GW of solar (plus like 1.2 battery storage or something). While I personally supported the legislation that led to this, the SCC is forced to approve this amt of new development.

Now Dominion is also trying to force the SCC to approve small modular reactors, which are fantastically expensive and pretty much still in the R&D phase (which there is plenty of federal money to do). Not to mention wildly unnecessary considering how much generation potential we are in the throes of building. Tell your legislator to vote no on HB2333 and HB2197.

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t-flex4 t1_j91dm50 wrote

Its not about generation potential, it's about grid stability. Wind, solar and hydro do not provide grid stability.

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LilWhiny t1_j91fe9g wrote

I have a Master of Science in energy policy and I am acutely aware of this dynamic. Our gas plants don’t come offline until 2045 and we are nowhere close to needing additional baseload. Investing in deploying SMRs while in the R&D stage makes no sense. Maybe in 15-20 years.

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