When I covered the coalfields beat for the Roanoke Times in early 1980s, Virginia coal companies employed more than 25,000. The number has dwindled to one-tenth that number today. Not only has the number of miners plummeted, but so has employment in the industries that supply them with everything from timbers, rock dust and roof bolts to heavy trucks and continuous mining machines.
Wise County, where Virginia’s coal industry took root more than a century ago, is desperately trying to diversify its economy. In an irony of ironies, it is looking to solar energy. But it has run into a regulatory tangle.
As described by the Roanoke Times, Wise County has robust broadband connections, courtesy of the Virginia Tobacco Commission, which it is trying to parlay into technology investment. It has secured one big victory so far, which it hopes to build upon. The Mineral Gap Data Center, under construction at the Lonesome Pine Regional Business and Technology Park, will create 30 jobs. But many energy-hungry data-center companies are demanding renewable power, and Wise County is served by Old Dominion Power, a subsidiary of Kentucky Utilities Company, which derives only one percent of its electricity from renewables.
As it happens, a solar company wants to locate in Wise: Energix Renewable Energies, the largest renewable energy company in Israel. The company has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to build a 20-megawatt solar facility in Wise. Here’s the catch: Energix wants to sell excess power back to Old Dominion Power, and Old Dominion Power isn’t interested. “Our generation portfolio is meeting our customers’ needs at this time and we do not currently have the need for additional generation capacity,” the utility says, as quoted by the Times.
Now the Wise County Industrial Development Authority wants Governor Terry McAuliffe to intervene. Although it is too late for the General Assembly to introduce new bills this year, McAuliffe can propose amendments, and Wise County is asking him to propose one that would require Old Dominion to buy solar power from Energix and re-sell it to other companies in the business park. Whether McAuliffe can find a germane bill upon which to attach such an amendment, even if he were inclined to do so, is an open question.
Bacon’s bottom line: I am totally sympathetic to Wise County’s desire to diversity its economy, and building a data center/solar power industry cluster sounds like a plausible idea. Data center jobs would be highly paid by local standards, and both data centers and solar facilities would shore up the local tax base. But giving Wise County what it wants would potentially unravel Virginia’s electric utility regulatory structure. Perhaps the electric utility regulatory structure needs unraveling. But thought needs to be given to what to replaces it, and a ginning up a last-minute gubernatorial amendment is not the venue for contemplating a major overhaul.
In the meantime, there is nothing to stop Energix from selling its surplus electricity into the wholesale electricity market maintained by PJM Interconnection. Of course, the price likely would be lower. But Energix cannot reasonably expect to charge the full retail rate for electricity when it is not responsible for maintaining the electric grid that distributes the electricity.
Alternatively, a data-center company seeking to locate in Wise County could purchase renewable power from outside Wise County. For example, Amazon Web Services isn’t purchasing green energy from Loudoun County solar farms — it’s importing solar energy from the Eastern Shore. Half a loaf would be better than none.
While Wise County has a weak case in the context of the current regulatory structure, it is equally clear that the rigidity of that regulatory structure is not helping economic development there. The more instances we hear like this, the more political pressure will build to revisit Virginia’s utility regulatory framework.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.