Virginia's State Corporation Commission ordered data centers to pay directly for transmission infrastructure built to serve them, instead of spreading those costs to all ratepayers. The move comes after Governor Abigail Spanberger urged regulators to shield residents from spiraling electricity costs driven by AI data center buildout. Virginia hosts the nation's largest concentration of data centers—at least 570 sites—contributing to PJM's 76% capacity auction price increase. The SCC's decision is projected to save Virginia families and small businesses hundreds of millions of dollars.
The new policy requires large-load customers (primarily data centers) to cover at least 85% of contracted distribution and transmission demand and 60% of generation demand, effective January 2027. Before this change, data centers could contract for 100 megawatts but only use a fraction upfront, forcing utilities to build infrastructure for the full amount and pass those costs equally to all ratepayers. Dominion Energy had requested $822 million in 2026 rate increases; the SCC approved only $565.7 million.
This is the first statewide enforcement of former President Trump's March pledge to make AI hyperscalers 'pay their own way' for infrastructure. The decision establishes precedent: data center expansion costs should not subsidize residential and small-business bills. Oregon has implemented similar measures. Architects shipping production data center workloads should expect this cost-shifting pattern to spread to other states, potentially reshaping capex modeling for AI infrastructure projects.