Expert Testimony in Virginia Regarding Alternatives to Dominion’s 2020 IRP

Sierra Club
Project completed November 2020

Synapse assisted the Sierra Club with evaluating Dominion’s 2020 Virginia IRP and modeling alternative scenarios demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of clean energy generation and coal retirements. Synapse modeled an optimized Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) compliant scenario in EnCompass that resulted in lower emissions and lower costs than Dominion’s preferred plan. Rachel Wilson sponsored testimony describing how the Synapse scenario eliminated unnecessary gas capacity additions that Dominion fixed in its modeling, and showed that accelerating retirements of certain coal units by increasing solar generation capacity would save ratepayers billions of dollars.

In addition, Synapse reviewed Dominion’s position regarding the PJM Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR) and the Fixed Resource Requirement (FRR) alternative to participating in the PJM capacity market under the MOPR. Jason Frost sponsored testimony describing how the MOPR will increase the costs of meeting state clean energy goals and require Dominion to retain unnecessary legacy fossil fuel powered generation by not counting renewable capacity. Mr. Frost’s testimony also discusses how the FRR presents a way to avoid the negative impacts of the MOPR, and can reduce consumer costs by avoiding the need to pay for legacy fossil fuel capacity that is no longer needed.