Emergency grid costs can land on your bill, and the federal order says so

RICHMOND, Va. - The federal emergency that kept Virginia's grid running in September comes with a bill. Who pays is spelled out in one sentence of the order: "Rate recovery is available pursuant to 16 U.S.C. § 824a(c)."

That line appears in Paragraph I of Department of Energy Order No. 202-26-45, signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sept. 17. It directs every party affected by the order to file "any tariff, tariff revisions or waivers necessary" with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In plain English, plant owners who ran under emergency orders can seek to be paid, and those costs can work their way into rates.

What we know, and what we don't

The order covered Sept. 17 and 18 across PJM Interconnection's 13-state region. PJM had forecast a shortfall of about 700 megawatts below its reserve margin, with the Dominion zone among the three hardest hit.

Under the order, Dominion's Mount Storm coal station in West Virginia ran one unit 12 hours and another one hour in reliance on the order's waivers, and six diesel backup units in Ashburn ran 8 to 10 hours, according to PJM's Sept. 17 compliance report. The list of covered units also included 11 gas-and-oil turbines in Louisa, Fauquier and Hanover counties.

What hasn't been published is the price. The order, PJM's application and the compliance report contain no cost figures. No FERC filing seeking recovery under this order was found in public sources. That isn't unusual this soon, but ratepayers should watch for one.

Not the first time this year

PJM's application lists seven earlier 2026 emergency orders as precedent, from January through Sept. 1. Each one is a potential cost.

Already paying more

Virginia households are already absorbing higher energy costs. In a separate case, the State Corporation Commission approved Dominion's 2026-27 fuel factor of 3.6749 cents per kilowatt-hour plus a prior-period factor of 0.0899 cents, effective July 1, 2026. In a companion order, it approved securitizing about $931.85 million in deferred fuel costs and fees, to be repaid by customers over about seven years, according to SCC records. Utility Dive reported that securitization turned what would have been a $21.79 monthly jump for a typical residential customer into a $7.97 fuel increase plus a $2.26 securitization charge. Securitization spreads costs out, but it adds interest.

Those fuel cases have nothing to do with the federal emergency order. They do show how costs that are deferred today come due later.

Scarcity has a price

Emergency orders are what a grid uses when it doesn't have enough. PJM said in September that it had "committed all available generation resources across its footprint." It still needed a federal waiver, backup diesel and paid demand cuts, which it called in the BGE, Pepco and Dominion zones.

Conservatives have warned for years that Richmond's push to retire dispatchable power plants under the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act, before replacements are reliably on the grid, would raise both risk and cost. DOE's order doesn't blame any single policy for September; PJM pointed to heat, maintenance outages, transmission limits and exports. But every emergency order carries a cost-recovery clause, and every one ends up somewhere on a bill.

Who's accountable

The SCC regulates Dominion's retail rates. Its three commissioners were copied on the order, and a review of SCC news releases found no public statement on it. Members of the General Assembly elect those commissioners, and many legislators take Dominion money.

Dominion's political giving

Dominion is among the largest political donors in Richmond, and Virginia does not cap corporate contributions. Records compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) show Dominion's 20 largest Democratic recipients in the 2025-26 cycle took at least $8.42 million. That list includes Shannon Taylor's attorney general campaign ($775,000), Del. Charniele Herring ($625,000), Speaker Don Scott ($600,409), Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell ($600,000) and Sen. Mamie Locke ($600,000). In 2023-24, VPAP shows the top 20 Democratic recipients took at least $7.15 million. Dominion's top 20 Republican recipients took about $5.58 million in 2025-26 and $5.06 million in 2023-24, led by Attorney General Jason Miyares at $1.42 million, according to VPAP. Virginia Scope, using VPAP data, reports Dominion has given nearly $18 million to Democrats and more than $15 million to Republicans since 2018. At the federal level, Dominion Energy PAC gave $117,800 to Democratic candidates in 2023-24 and $162,500 to Democratic PACs and party committees, according to OpenSecrets. These figures come from VPAP and OpenSecrets compilations and have not been independently re-verified against state filings.

Documents

The order, PJM's application, its supplemental letter and Exhibit A are posted on the Department of Energy's 202(c) page for Order No. 202-26-45 at energy.gov. PJM's daily compliance report for Sept. 17 is posted at pjm.com.