Chesterfield Power Plant

Dominion Energy announced plans in June 2023 to build a 1000 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Chesterfield County (after retiring its last coal units in the county in 2023). Dominion Energy’s “Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center” (aka CERC) would operate during peak energy demand periods, particularly on extremely hot or cold days when the regional power grid is strained from high energy demands. If approved, the plant would be constructed adjacent to the retired coal power plant.

What To Know:

• The CERC is being proposed by Dominion Energy to be an always-ready resource that will provide power quickly- in as little as 10 minutes- and as needed, for example, on the hottest and coldest days of the year.
  • Only meant to run 37% of the time during peak energy demand hours
  • Aims to meet increasing energy demand in VA (think: data centers)
  • At the site of its former coal plant, the Chesterfield Power Station
• Local and state legislature opposition – say methane gas plant violates 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act
  • VCEA-  state’s electric grid must transition to 100% clean energy by 2050
• Widespread community opposition
  • Concerns about increasing electricity bill (Dominion customers are footing the bill)
  • Concerns of air pollutants within communities in Chesterfield and Henrico County
    • Annually the plant would release more than 1100 tons of toxic air pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter_2.5) linked to serious health risks
  • Concerns about environmental impacts
    • The plant will increase Dominion’s total annual carbon emissions by the equivalent of 2.2 million tons of CO2, or adding 489,000 cars to our roads each year.
    • Methane has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years that it enters the atmosphere, and is the primary component of gas
  • Concerns that the Chesterfield proposal is more than a standalone project, but rather a broader effort to lock central Virginians into relying on methane gas
• DEQ has held multiple hearings about it
  • DEQ monitors air pollution and controls it via permits
  • Official public hearing held on Sept. 8 – hundreds in the community attended and had their comments officially recorded and submitted to DEQ before the permit is officially approved or denied.

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