Virginia Mercury outlined Dominion Energy’s plans to comply with the VCEA, quoting Virginia AEE’s Harry Godfrey on compliance with the state’s renewable portfolio standard. Read snippets below and the full story here. 

State regulators’ blessing of Dominion Energy’s first annual plan for how it will meet the ambitious renewables targets set by the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act has sounded the starting bell of Virginia’s race to decarbonize its electric grid by midcentury.

In rulings handed down April 30, the State Corporation Commission signed off on a set of proposals from the state’s two largest electric utilities, Dominion and Appalachian Power. Among the projects that received a stamp of approval were plans by Dominion to build three new solar farms and purchase large amounts of power from six independently-owned solar facilities.

Clocking in at nearly half a gigawatt of power, the solar proposals will be capable of generating electricity for 125,000 homes. Dominion, which called them “a major step toward achieving the goals of the Virginia Clean Economy Act,” is already gearing up for more…

Harry Godfrey, executive director of clean energy business group Virginia Advanced Energy Economy and one of the architects of the VCEA, in an interview with the Mercury said compliance with the renewable portfolio standard “is the thing that matters most in the law.” 

“It’s not just building renewables for the sake of building renewables, it’s building renewables for the sake of the RPS,” he said. 

In their April 30 decision, commissioners explicitly disagreed with Dominion’s position and ordered future annual plans to not only analyze how proposals will meet the state’s broader decarbonization targets but also offer a least-cost pathway for meeting state mandates.

Read the full story here.