Modeling demonstrates urgent need to curb data center load growth
RICHMOND, VA — Governor Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) released today her State Energy Plan, a document required by state code that must outline approaches to achieving a net-zero economy across all sectors no later than 2045. The Plan’s policy recommendations strongly depart from the gas and nuclear-heavy approach favored by former Governor Glenn Youngkin and instead principally focus on unlocking low-cost, clean energy resources that meet the Governor’s affordability goals and are aligned with state decarbonization statutes. The Plan takes seriously the potential for energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and distributed energy resources to contribute meaningfully to a sophisticated, modern grid.
The Plan leans on existing state statute and load growth forecasts to produce resource portfolio model outputs that also make clear that the Commonwealth needs strong action to curb data center load growth. The Governor’s remarks made clear that the three “policy adjusted” scenarios are preferred by the administration and policy recommendations are in keeping with said scenarios. While not a major contributor to those preferred scenarios, gas fuel cells – modeled in the Plan principally to power data centers behind-the-meter – contribute carbon emissions to the atmosphere that accelerate climate change.
Victoria Higgins, Virginia Director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), issued the following statement:
“What a difference a year makes. Governor Spanberger’s Energy Plan is a massive departure from the unserious, polluter-friendly agenda peddled by the Youngkin Administration. The Plan clearly prioritizes low-cost, clean energy resources and the development of a modern, flexible grid. It is high time we thoughtfully grapple with the short- and long-term costs of pollution to health and communities, as this Plan does.
We further appreciate that the Plan ensures that utility incentives and compensation are aligned with performance outcomes, and renewable procurement is competitive and results in the low-cost projects we see nationwide. This is particularly important as we face the potential for the NextEra/Dominion mega-merger, a union we believe will result in higher energy costs and greater political interference.
This Plan comes at an exceptionally challenging moment for energy affordability. The modeling output demonstrates that AI data center load growth is out of control. Virginia communities should house energy infrastructure that serves community needs, not Big Tech profits. We should not add a single Megawatt of data center demand to the Virginia energy landscape until policy protections are fully realized.”
After several months of stakeholder and community input as to problems, methodologies, and solutions the administration should prioritize, the Plan outlines five different policy scenarios and the electricity resource portfolios that could meet demand under those conditions. The low and no new gas policy scenarios represent the lowest-cost resource portfolios when the impact of air pollutants to public health and the economy is accounted for. Such costs are externalized to Virginia families through burdens such as hospital bills, crop failures, and extreme weather events, and are often unaccounted for in utility planning models that favor polluting resources.
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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
