New report details why Dominion Energy bills keep rising and what policymakers and regulators can do to confront the trend

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT:

Amy Bacigalupo | Clean Virginia Communications Manager

[email protected]

March 30, 2026

New report details why Dominion Energy bills keep rising and what policymakers and regulators can do to confront the trend

RICHMOND, Va. — A new report from Clean Virginia, The Path to Affordable Power: Lowering bills for Dominion Energy customers, finds that Dominion residential electric bills rose from $90.59 to $149.92 between 2007 and 2025. This represents an increase of more than 65%, far outpacing inflation. This growth, which has only accelerated in recent months, has been driven largely by policy choices that reward utility overspending and shift financial risk from shareholders to customers.

“Dominion customers are paying higher bills because the system is rigged to reward spending, not savings,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Virginia. “This report conclusively shows that Virginia’s families and small businesses are footing the bill for bad policy choices, poor planning and unchecked utility power.”

The report details four primary drivers of rising bills:

• A regulatory framework that rewards utility spending rather than cost control.
• Policies that encourage the utility to overrely on fossil fuels, exposing customers to volatile fuel prices and long-term health risks.
• Rapid data center growth that has continuously increased  infrastructure costs.
• National cost pressures, including tariffs and reduced federal incentives, that amplify the impacts of poor planning.

The report also outlines concrete solutions to lower bills and protect customers, including strengthening oversight of utility profits, reforming cost allocation so data centers pay their fair share, expanding energy efficiency programs, and prioritizing lower-cost clean energy alternatives over new gas plants.

Clean Virginia released the report on the heels of the 2026 General Assembly legislative session, where lawmakers largely failed to act on any major reforms to protect families and small businesses from rising electric utility costs. 

“There is not a singular force to blame for climbing energy costs, but a number of interlinked causes that must be addressed comprehensively to seriously address the energy affordability crisis,” said Gilmore. “Until Virginia’s leaders are ready to ask why so much of what customers pay every month flows to Dominion’s shareholders instead of the grid, the clean energy transition, or families struggling to get by, and confront the problem with holistic, meaningful reform, Virginians will continue paying the price for a system that puts monopoly utilities and their profits first.”

The full report is available here.

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Clean Virginia is a nonpartisan advocacy nonprofit with an affiliated political action committee, the Clean Virginia Fund. Clean Virginia works to end utility monopoly corruption in politics to promote clean, affordable energy and a government that works for all Virginians.