Dominion Pockets Profits During Proposed Sale

Dominion Energy announced last week that its second-quarter revenue rose to $4.48 billion, up substantially from the $3.81 billion in revenue it earned in the same period last year. Those earnings far surpassed analysts’ estimates. Overall, Dominion posted adjusted earnings of 79 cents per share, again easily topping expectations.

The profits are driven, in part, by the expansion of power-hungry data centers. Dominion said it has contracted an additional 5.3 gigawatts of data center capacity in Virginia so far this year, bringing its total demand from data centers to 53.8 gigawatts.

At the same time, residential customers are being asked to pay more. Last year, Dominion “requested base rate increases of $8.51 per month in 2026 and $2.00 per month in 2027 for a typical residential customer.” After some back-and-forth, the Virginia State Corporation Commission eventually settled on monthly increases of $11.24 this year and $2.36 next year for the average customer. In addition, Dominion imposed an $8-per-month fuel surcharge that appeared on customer bills starting in July.

The company also said the price tag for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project jumped 2% and is now estimated to cost $11.65 billion. The project is more than 80% complete, and Dominion blamed the latest cost overrun on tariffs and construction delays imposed by the federal government earlier this year.

Across the Commonwealth, counties are pushing back against the further expansion of data centers. Henrico County hosts 37 data centers and has already agreed to add at least 17 more. After that, however, “county leaders have expressed a non-desire to have [new] data centers because we’ve heard the feedback from the public,” Utilities Director Bentley Chan told Axios.

Henry County doesn’t have any data centers, and many residents want to keep it that way. “We have 700 data centers already in Virginia. The most in the whole world. That is more than China,” congressional candidate Adam Murphy said at a county board hearing last week. “If we really need a data center, which I do not think we do, it does not need to be in Southwestern Virginia.”

TRENDING ARTICLES

exclusive

Christian PA Fired Over Transgender Referrals, Pronouns Wins $410K Settlement as Hospital Adopts New Policy

Tyler O’Neil

opinion

Victor Davis Hanson: The Socialist Monster Awakens

Victor Davis Hanson

exclusive

‘It Has Destroyed Our Lives’: Christian Parents Sue Over Accusation They Caused ‘Mental Injury’ for Refusing to ‘Affirm’ Daughter’s Transgender Identity

Tyler O’Neil

On a statewide basis, state Sen. Glen Sturtevant said he “asked Gov. [Abigail] Spanberger to impose an immediate statewide moratorium on data centers. The projects should be paused now, and then we can decide whether Virginia should permit any more at all.”

Spanberger is in the process of putting together a 10-year energy plan. “It’s really just designed to basically provide a 10-year road map looking at how we’re going to hit the 2045 net zero across all sectors,” Chief Energy Officer Josephus Allmond told Virginia Mercury.

“I want to hear from Virginians across every corner of the commonwealth, and I encourage everyone who pays an energy bill in Virginia to make their voice heard,” Spanberger said. She encouraged Virginians to log on and provide feedback. The energy plan is due by Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, Dominion Energy is moving forward with a planned merger with NextEra Energy of Florida. Both companies filed applications with federal and state regulators last month. If the merger goes through, the companies vowed that “Dominion Energy customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina would receive $2.25 billion in bill credits over the first two years after closing, funded by shareholders and not recoverable from customers.”

The deal could be wrapped up by the second half of 2027.