Stop Dominion’s Chesterfield Gas Plant

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Clean Virginia, used with permission

About The Plant

The plant would be co-located with the existing Chesterfield Power Station, a largely-retired decades-old coal fired-power plant, next to the Dutch Gap Conservation Area.

Community members have raised significant concerns about the proposed plant’s impact on increasing energy bills, public health and the environment.

THE PROBLEM

Dominion Energy wants to build six new gas plants

Dominion Energy announced plans in June 2023 to build a 1000 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Chesterfield County.

This plant would be the first of six.

Sunrise UVA, used with permission
Anna Liminowicz / Climate Visuals, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Hugh Kenny / The Piedmont Environmental Council, used with permission

The Gas Plant is for Data Centers’ Energy Needs

Residential electricity demand is almost flat.

Virginia is the epicenter of the global data center industry, with nearly 350 data centers.

One AI data center can consume the same amount of electricity as a midsize city – roughly 100,000-250,000 people!

Data centers already consume 25% of Virginia’s electricity.

If projections hold, they are on track to consume over half of all power produced in the state.

Statewide Impacts

Higher Bills

The plant will cost customers $4.5 billion by 2064, before accounting for fuel costs1

An average Dominion customer’s energy bill could increase 120% by 2039, before accounting for inflation2

An alternative portfolio of clean energy, storage and energy efficiency could meet the same amount of energy demand as the proposed plant, but at less than half the cost3

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Gulshan Khan / Climate Visuals, , licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Health Issues

More than 1700 tons of toxic pollution, released by the plant each year4, could cause and/or make worse serious health problems, increased emergency room visits and death5

Effects on health are estimated to cost Virginians $13-$21 million per year, with $3.3-$4.8 of those costs expected to fall on Chesterfield County6

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Anna Liminowicz / Climate Visuals, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Environment

Each year, the plant would emit a comparable amount of planet-warming pollutants as driving more than 5.6 billion miles in an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle7 – that’s almost 12,000 trips to the moon and back!8

Methane, the main component of the plant’s fuel, has 81.2 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years that it enters the atmosphere.9

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  1. Dominion Energy, Application of Virginia Electric and Power Company, For approval or a certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct and operate the proposed Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center electric generation and related transmission facilities pursuant to § 56-580 D and 56- 46.1 of the Code of Virginia and for approval of a rate adjustment clause, designated Rider CERC, under § 56-585.1A 6 of the Code of Virginia, No. PUR-2025-00037, accessed May 12, 2025. ↩︎
  2. Dominion Energy, Virginia Electric and Power Company’s 2024 Integrated Resource Plan filing pursuant to Va. Code § 56-597 et seq., No. PUR-2024-00184, accessed May 12, 2025. ↩︎
  3. Chirag T. Lala et al., “Assessing Alternatives to the Proposed Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center (CERC)” (Applied Economics Clinic, July 2024), https://aeclinic.org/publicationpages/07/2024/assessing-alternatives-to-the-proposed-chesterfield-energy-reliability-center. ↩︎
  4. Virginia Electric and Power Company, “Air Permit Application for the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center” (Chesterfield County, Virginia: Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc, March 2025), https://www.deq.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/27961/638767579192800000. ↩︎
  5. U.S. EPA, “Basic Information about Lead Air Pollution,” Lead Air Pollution, June 13, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/lead-air-pollution/basic-information-about-lead-air-pollution., U.S. EPA, “Sulfur Dioxide Basics,” Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Pollution, January 10, 2025, https://www.epa.gov/so2-pollution/sulfur-dioxide-basics., U.S. EPA, “Health and Environmental Effects of Particulate Matter (PM),” Particulate Matter (PM) Pollution, May 2, 2025, https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm., U.S. EPA, “Basic Information about NO2,” Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Pollution, July 16, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/no2-pollution/basic-information-about-no2., U.S. EPA, “Basic Information about Carbon Monoxide (CO) Outdoor Air Pollution,” Carbon Monoxide (CO) Pollution in Outdoor Air, June 21, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/co-pollution/basic-information-about-carbon-monoxide-co-outdoor-air-pollution. ↩︎
  6. Abt Associates Inc and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Co-Benefits Risk Assessment Health Screening and Mapping Tool, version 5.2 (U.S. EPA, 2025)., Virginia Electric and Power Company, “Air Permit Application for the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center” (Chesterfield County, Virginia: Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc, March 2025), https://www.deq.virginia.gov/home
    /showpublisheddocument/27961/638767579192800000. COBRA analysis prepared using 2028 Analysis Year Data and Table 3-6 from Dominion’s Air Permit Application. ↩︎
  7. U.S. EPA, Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, version October 2024, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator., Virginia Electric and Power Company, “Air Permit Application for the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center” (Chesterfield County, Virginia: Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc, March 2025), https://www.deq.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/27961/638767579192800000. ↩︎
  8. NASA, “How Far Away Is the Moon?,” SpacePlace, July 23, 2021, https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/moon-distance/en/. ↩︎
  9. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ed., “The Earth’s Energy Budget, Climate Feedbacks and Climate Sensitivity,” in Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 923–1054, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.009. ↩︎