Ten major data industry companies, including Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe, have written Dominion Energy imploring the company to base its future electricity generation on renewables and to diminish its planned reliance on natural gas. The companies’ May 8 letter stated:
Given the significance of our growing and energy-intensive industry in relation to total energy demand in Virginia, companies’ data center energy interests should be taken into account in decisions regarding the future of the region’s energy infrastructure. In particular:
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- Companies providing or using data centers want to power our operations with renewable energy resources like wind and solar;
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- Data centers are at the forefront of innovative energy-efficient technologies to reduce the energy burden of our operations.
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- Energy storage technologies are here today and should be integrated into grid planning.
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- Grid planners should take these points into account before building expensive fossil fuel infrastructure projects.
The tech companies’ letter concludes:
Dominion Energy’s re-filed proposed 2018 Integrated Resource Plan again fails to fully take into account the energy preferences of the data center industry—by limiting the amount of competitively procured solar energy, neglecting to consider energy storage as a cost-effective and beneficial energy resource, and continuing to plan for the development of additional natural gas infrastructure.