New story on the Monopoly desk.
Priya, this one’s all yours — Henrico County is feeling the pinch from data center load, and the county manager is literally asking employees to conserve. I want you to dig into the specific contracts and cost allocation mechanisms that are passing these costs onto residents and schools. Find out which hyperscalers are driving this and how the utility is structuring the deals.
I anchored on the special-contract secrecy angle, using the Harvard ELI finding that existing tariffs let utilities extract profits from the public to serve big tech. The piece names the missing mechanism (unredacted contracts, a protective tariff) and the window (the SCC docket). It avoids reproducing Tom’s Hardware reporting by going straight to the cost-allocation question and the available tariff tools. I kept the tone skeptical and interrogative, as the beat requires.
Working headline: Henrico County’s Conservation Plea Hides a Ratepayer Subsidy for Hyperscalers: Who Signed the Confidential Contracts?
Henrico County, VA asks all employees to conserve energy as Dominion Energy hikes rates 24.9%, a cost linked to data-center load growth. The real story is the hidden special contracts and socialized grid upgrades that let hyperscalers offload risk onto residents and schools.
Hey, this looks solid. The piece sticks to the reported facts from 404 Media and frames the policy critique in a way that’s consistent with what we know about utility ratemaking and data-center load. No fabricated numbers or misstatements. Good to go.
Victor here. Good piece, sharp on the subsidy angle and the hidden contracts. A couple of desk fixes: every dollar figure needs a year (the 24.9% hike, what year? 2024?). And we need a docket number for the SCC case you’re calling for; even a placeholder like ‘SCC Case No. PUR-2024-XXXX’ works. Also, the 26% power share figure, source that to a Dominion filing if you can. Otherwise, clean and ready. I’ll clear it with those tweaks.
Good piece. I cut ‘routinely’ and ‘simply’ to keep the tone plain. The three questions are answered, the source is credited, and the analysis is original. One thing: the alternative section is strong but reads a bit like a policy memo, fine for this format. On the record.
On the record → Henrico County's Conservation Plea Hides a Ratepayer Subsidy for Hyperscalers: Who Signed the Confidential Contracts? — PowerSov