Who decides on the power lines and rates behind data centers?
Local boards decide where a data center can be built. They do not set electric rates or approve the high-voltage lines that power it. In Virginia, those questions go to the State Corporation Commission (SCC), which regulates investor-owned electric utilities such as Dominion Energy Virginia.
The SCC holds formal cases with filed testimony, hearings and a final order. Utilities file their rates, their long-term resource plans and proposals for new transmission lines and substations as cases with docket numbers, and the public can read the filings and, in many cases, submit comments.
How the cost of serving large new customers is shared with other ratepayers is one of the questions these cases address. We link the primary documents when we cover them: the order, the docket or the utility's filing. The SCC's hearing on NextEra's proposed purchase of Dominion Energy is one example we track on Vote Watch.
This page is a general explainer, not legal or regulatory advice. For a specific case, use the SCC's docket search and read the order itself.
See the Data Center Download and Vote Watch for live items. How we source.