RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The State Corporation Commission (SCC) has approved some of Dominion Energy Virginia’s plans for improvements. However, the electric company giant will have to make some concessions.
In an announcement on Monday, Sept. 18, the SCC said that it had approved the third phase of Dominion’s plan for electric distribution grid-transformation projects.
However, the SCC also announced that it would be reducing Dominion’s allowable spending on strengthening main feeder lines from $508.3 million to $182.7 million.
According to the announcement, Dominion had requested permission to harden 111 main feeders but the SCC only approved 44.
“Simply put, the Company has not sustained its burden of proving these costs are reasonable and prudent,” said a spokesperson for the commission.
Additionally, the SCC approved the continuation of several programs, including:
- Installation of advanced metering infrastructure
- A customer information platform
- Targeted corridor improvement
- Voltage optimization enablement
- Telecommunications and physical security enhancements
Two new programs were also approved — an outage management system and a non-wires alternative pilot. The non-wires pilot will involve the installation of five front-of-meter battery energy storage systems over the course of five years.
In total, the SCC approved $824.1 million in capital investments through 2026, going toward improving the safety and security of Dominion’s electric distribution system with $58.6 million going toward operations and maintenance.
