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News<br />

Ratepayer Advocates Seek Protections in<br />

Offshore Wind Case By Sarah Rankin | Associated Press<br />

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — State regulators considering whether<br />

to approve Dominion Energy Virginia’s plans for a nearly $10<br />

billion offshore wind farm should implement protections to<br />

shield customers from possible cost overruns and other project<br />

risks, ratepayer advocates testified Tuesday, May 17.<br />

No party to the proceeding is asking that the State Corporation<br />

Commission reject outright the planned 176-turbine<br />

project off the coast of Virginia Beach, which the company<br />

says will be the country’s largest. But attorneys representing<br />

the utility’s customers and environmental groups have<br />

sought to make the case that because of the project’s enormous<br />

cost and complexity, commissioners should consider<br />

protections like a cost cap or independent monitor.<br />

“Let’s be honest — this is a $9.65B construction project<br />

where we will be digging 176 holes in the middle of the<br />

ocean. There are risks,” said Carrie Grundmann, an attorney<br />

representing Walmart in the proceedings.<br />

The SCC heard hours of testimony and cross-examination<br />

May 17, at the start of a multiday evidentiary hearing.<br />

Dominion, which already has a two-turbine pilot project<br />

up and running, filed an application with the commission<br />

in November seeking approval and cost recovery for the<br />

commercial-scale project. It’s part of an ongoing shift in the<br />

company’s generation mix toward a greater proportion of<br />

renewables.<br />

But attorneys for several parties that have not signed on to<br />

the proposed agreement urged the commissioners to consider<br />

other protections.<br />

Meade Browder, from the Office of the Attorney General’s<br />

Division of Consumer Counsel, said the proposed agreement<br />

offered little more than Dominion’s initial position.<br />

The wind farm, he said, will be the most costly single project<br />

undertaken by any regulated utility in the country, with the<br />

exception of Southern Company’s Vogtle nuclear plant in<br />

Georgia, which has faced lengthy delays and cost overruns.<br />

Dominion’s offshore wind project is also the country’s only<br />

one in development that’s owned and operated by a vertically<br />

integrated monopoly utility, he said, putting Dominion’s<br />

captive ratepayers uniquely at risk.<br />

In previously filed testimony, an expert witness for the AG’s<br />

office has recommended required periodic status reports and<br />

Attorneys representing Dominion said May 17 that the<br />

utility has met all statutory requirements for approval of the<br />

project, which has drawn broad support from local officials,<br />

policymakers, business groups and trade unions.<br />

The project will “propel Virginia to the head of the race<br />

towards a clean energy future,” creating jobs and positioning<br />

the state as a leader in the burgeoning offshore wind<br />

industry, said Vishwa Link, an attorney from the law firm<br />

McGuireWoods representing the company.<br />

Dominion is urging the commission to approve a proposed<br />

agreement it reached with several other parties to the<br />

proceeding — the Sierra Club, Nansemond Indian Nation<br />

and corporation commission staff — which was unveiled in a<br />

recent filing.<br />

The proposed stipulation agreement says no construction<br />

costs in excess of $9.65 billion would be approved in connection<br />

with the pending proceeding; anything above that<br />

would require separate approval. It includes reporting<br />

requirements about the project’s performance and reporting<br />

requirements should the project’s timeline or cost estimates<br />

change.<br />

8<br />

| Chief Engineer

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