The 2.6-gigawatt, utility-scale project’s schedule calls for construction to be complete in 2026. The company already has a two-turbine pilot project up and running.
The wind farm, which will be about 27 miles off the coast, has an expected capital cost of $9.8 billion and has drawn broad support from local officials, policymakers, business groups and trade unions, who say it will help fight climate change and create jobs. “This is essentially a ‘heads I win, tails you lose' proposition - a one-way street to the sole detriment of the Company,” the filing said. Dominion has estimated 42% as the lifetime average capacity factor for the project and said in the petition that some years would outperform and others would underperform, and that performance may “degrade over time.” Further, the requirement is unfairly structured, with a penalty for years during which the project underperforms but no bonus in excess years, Dominion said. The filing took issue with the use of a 42% capacity factor over a three-year period. The utility also argued the performance standard is unreasonably broad in scope and would hold it responsible for events far out of its control, such as “acts of war or terror, catastrophic weather events or changes in weather patterns."
Such a performance standard will protect customers who are paying for the project “from also having to pay for replacement energy if the Project does not generate the amount of electricity upon which Dominion bases its request and its cost estimates,” the commission said in its order.ĭominion argued in its petition that the commission lacks the authority to impose such a performance guarantee and that doing so would be contrary to the intent of the General Assembly, which helped pave the way for the project in 2020 with an overhaul of the state's energy law. Capacity factor is a measure of how often a generating facility runs during a period of time. The State Corporation Commission ordered that beginning with the commercial operation and extending through the life of the project, customers will be “held harmless” for any shortfall in energy production below an annual net capacity factor of 42%, measured on a three-year rolling average. 5 order included three “consumer protections,” including the performance guarantee, or performance standard.
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