Add your name to our comment below urging the State Corporation Commission to reject Dominion's proposal that would undermine rooftop solar in Virginia.
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Case Comments for PUR-2025-00079
Chesapeake Climate Action Network Comments re: Net Metering
At the same time utility rates are rising and federal incentives are being removed for prospective residential solar customers, Dominion Energy is proposing to cut net metering by reducing the credits paid to solar owners for power contributed to the grid and dramatically shortening the crediting period. Virginia has immense energy demands, clean energy procurement targets, and annual Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements. Dominion’s proposed devaluation of the net metering program would negatively impact the state’s ability to meet all three of those statutory needs. Rooftop solar and other distributed energy resources are key to Virginia’s clean energy future; if net metering rules are changed as proposed, very few potential solar households will find the upfront investment into solar to be economically viable and less solar will be installed.
Currently, Dominion Energy pays back the full retail rate to customers who share their excess energy with their neighbors. Net metering benefits everyone, not just people who have solar panels on their roofs. Paying solar customers the full retail value of the energy they contribute encourages installation of solar and storage, providing local jobs for residential solar installers. Increased solar adoption decreases the need for polluting, carbon-intensive, expensive infrastructure like methane gas pipelines and peaker plants, saves ratepayers money, and increases grid reliability. Given that adoption of solar in Virginia is not yet close to approaching the Commonwealth’s net metering cap of 6%, there is still significant headroom for increased distributed energy resource (DER) adoption; altering the compensation structure would disincentivize adoption and damage Virginia’s ability to meet its clean energy goals, as well as undercut grid-wide economic and resilience benefits associated with increased adoption. (1)
In Dominion’s proposal, compensation would be calculated every half hour, rather than annually. This means credits for excess energy generated would be applied within that 30-minute window, with no rolling over of surplus to the next period. Customers would not be given adequate time to be compensated for producing more than they consume without that carryover; for example, excess energy produced on a sunny afternoon would be unable to roll over to the evening, despite benefits provided to the grid. In the summer in Virginia, often these sunny afternoons are also high air conditioning periods, increasing demand for electricity; the high production of rooftop solar is useful for Dominion in assisting the grid during such peaks. In fact, the value that solar customers add to the grid, especially during these peak demand periods, is even greater than the existing 1-1 retail rate of $0.14/kWh implies, estimated to be $0.16/kWh for utility benefits and even greater when impacts on health and climate are considered.(2) Given the myriad benefits of distributed solar energy, including reducing the need for ratepayer-subsidized new utility scale generation, reduced transmission construction, and reduced strain on the existing utility scale generation, the proposed narrowing of the netting period not only harms future net metering customers but compromises energy affordability for the entire customer base.
In addition, DERs like rooftop solar projects play an important role in the utility’s ability to meet Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) goals, including clean energy procurement targets. The achievement of VCEA clean energy procurement targets is also necessary to facilitate RPS compliance, and significant new generation is needed to meet our state’s immense energy needs. We support the existing net metering policy that encourages that generation to be from clean energy, cutting costs and improving reliability for all Virginian ratepayers, solar owners and non-solar owners alike.
On behalf of the undersigned CCAN members, we respectfully ask that the Commission reject Dominion’s proposal that would cut net metering rates and shorten the netting period.
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(1) https://www.scc.virginia.gov/docketsearch/DOCS/85b301!.PDF; (2) https://www.pecva.org/wp-content/uploads/value-of-solar-report-pec-final-sept-2025.pdf
