October 5, 2017

Facebook, Dominion create renewable energy rate

Facebook Inc. on Oct. 5 announced plans for its next data center — its eighth in the U.S. — to be located just outside Richmond, Va., that will be supplied with renewable energy through a new utility rate option from Dominion Energy Virginia. 

The Dominion Energy subsidiary said the new rate option, which must be approved by state regulators, was designed with Facebook's input and will also allow other large energy users to meet their needs through the addition of renewable energy sources. The utility said it will add new solar generation to the power grid in order to serve Facebook's data center under the rate option. 

The newly created, voluntary rate structure, called Schedule RF (renewable facility) will be filed with the Virginia State Corporation Commission later in October, the utility said in a news release. If approved, Schedule RF will allow Facebook and other large companies to offset their annual energy needs with renewable energy delivered to the grid.

Dominion said this development will provide broader economic benefits to all of its 2.5 million customers and "ultimately lead to new business opportunities" in addition to the creation of millions of dollars in new renewable energy projects in the state. 

To qualify for the rate option, which Dominion says is experimental, "a customer must bring new electrical load and agree to purchase environmental attributes from renewable energy sources" as defined under state law. 

"We know from experience that when people come together, they can do a lot of good in the world," Bobby Hollis, director of global energy at Facebook said in a statement. "We came together with Dominion Energy Virginia to create a new tariff that ensures renewable energy solutions are accessible not just to Facebook, but other companies as well. This new opportunity for customers to access renewable energy enables us to get one step closer to our goal of powering 100% of our operations with clean and renewable energy."

The update from Dominion follows an announcement in early September alluding to its development of additional renewable energy programs for business customers.