Data centers and a utility that buys a quarter of its power

RICHMOND, Va. - Northern Virginia's data center boom has turned electricity into one of the commonwealth's biggest economic questions. State Corporation Commission staff says the proposed Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy merger must not take decisions about that power out of Virginia's hands.

Buying a quarter of its power

Staff testimony filed Monday in Case PUR-2026-00112 compared Dominion Energy Virginia with NextEra's Florida utility, Florida Power & Light. The difference is striking. "DEV relies upon power purchases to a significantly greater degree than FPL, with power purchases making up 25% of its generation in MWh during 2025 compared to 3% at FPL," staff wrote, calling it "a major difference between the two utilities" (staff testimony, p. 72).

The cost is higher too. In 2025, Dominion Energy Virginia's purchased power expenses were $74.22 per megawatt-hour, compared with $45.75 at FPL (p. 72). Staff noted the growth in purchased power costs "appears to align with the growth in kWh sales for the Virginia jurisdiction, likely driven by growth in data center customers" (p. 73). Staff recommends further study and root cause analyses in the 2027 fuel factor proceeding, and wants the company to evaluate cost allocation options to better align costs with the large-load customer class (p. 73).

For families, that is the key issue. When a utility buys more power on the market to serve fast-growing data center demand, the question becomes who pays.

The data center rate class

The SCC already approved a new GS-5 rate class, effective Jan. 1, 2027, for large, high load factor customers with demand of 25 megawatts or more, primarily data centers (p. 148). The companies project that charges on that class would help fund $87.9 million of the additional residential bill credits they now offer (p. 148).

Who decides

Staff wants the commission to direct Dominion Energy Virginia to keep "ultimate decision-making authority" over plans to meet its load forecast from large load customers, and to continue planning through Virginia's integrated resource plan process (p. 6). In other words, how Virginia meets data center demand should be decided by the Virginia utility under Virginia regulators, not by a parent company in Juno Beach.

Staff's broader concern is that NextEra's competitive arm, NextEra Energy Resources, carries far more debt than its regulated utility: 77% of capitalization versus 39% at FPL (p. 49). Staff concluded the merger as filed would expose the Virginia utility to those risks (p. 6) and recommended approval only with extra conditions (p. 7).

Grid, growth and Dominion's political grid

Data center policy runs through the General Assembly, where Dominion's donations reach deep. VPAP figures show the company's top 20 Democratic recipients took at least $8.42 million in 2025-26 and at least $7.15 million in 2023-24. Speaker Don Scott took $600,409 this cycle and $1.12 million last cycle. Majority Leader Scott Surovell took $600,000. On the Republican side, Dominion's top 20 recipients collected about $5.58 million in 2025-26, VPAP shows. Virginia Scope reports Dominion has given nearly $18 million to Democrats and more than $15 million to Republicans since 2018. Federally, Dominion Energy PAC gave $117,800 to Democratic candidates and $162,500 to Democratic PACs and party committees in 2023-24, according to OpenSecrets.

If the combined company decided Virginia campaign money was no longer a priority, a hypothetical at this stage, Democrats would lose at least $7 million to $8.5 million per state cycle from Dominion's top recipients and roughly $280,000 per federal cycle. The staff testimony does not address political giving. NextEra has its own PAC.

Still unanswered: how much of its 2025 purchased power was tied to data center demand, and whether NextEra would build more in-state generation to reduce purchases.

Page numbers refer to the 201-page public version of SCC Staff's prefiled testimony, Volume I of VII, in Case PUR-2026-00112 (SCC document 261030140), filed Oct. 19, 2026.