On December 10, 2021, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (“Commission”) issued its Order Adopting Regulations re: Regulations Governing Accelerated Renewable Energy Buyers (“ARB”) that became effective February 1, 2022.

To receive full or partial exemption from applicable Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard Program (“RPS”) eligible resources, potential ARB must certify annually either through the Commission or through Dominion Energy (“the Company”).

Certification for exemption from 2024-2025 RPS eligible resources:

A potential ARB that seeks certification based on its load and renewable energy under contract for the 2023 calendar year, must submit a certification form to receive exemption of applicable charges during the upcoming period starting June 1, 2024 through May 31, 2025. The Company is requesting certification forms be submitted by March 1, 2024.

To certify through the Company, please download and submit each applicable form by email to CertifyARBs@DominionEnergy.com.

• June 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025 Certification Form (based on 2023 data)

What is an Accelerated Renewable Energy Buyer (ARB)?

An ARB is defined as a commercial or industrial customer (including Commonwealth, County, or Municipal customers with qualifying load), irrespective of the generation supplier, with an aggregate load over 25 MW in the prior calendar year, that enters into arrangements or contracts with the Company or a person other than the Company to obtain (i) RECs from RPS eligible resources or (ii) Bundled Contracts.

What is Aggregate Load?

Aggregate load means the combined electrical load associated with selected accounts of an ARB with the same legal entity name as, or in the names of affiliated entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common control of, such legal entity or are the names of affiliated entities under a common parent. All non-residential and lighting rate schedules have the potential to be included in the aggregate load of an ARB.

What is a Bundled Contract?

Bundled contract is defined as (i) a contract for bundled capacity, energy and RECs from solar or wind generation resources located within the PJM region and initially placed in commercial operation after January 1, 2015, including any contract with a utility for such generation resources that does not allocate to or recover from any other customer of the utility the cost of such resources and (ii) a subscription by a customer of the Company, as of March 1, 2020, to a voluntary companion experimental tariff offering for the purchase of renewable attributes from renewable energy facilities that requires a renewable facilities agreement and the purchase of a minimum of 2,000 renewable attributes annually.

What RPS Compliance resources can an ARB qualify to be exempt from?

An ARB may offset all or a portion of its electric load for purposes of RPS compliance and therefore be exempt from all or a portion of new solar or onshore wind, energy or environmental attributes, or energy storage facilities (currently Rider CE Rider PPA and Rider RPS).

• ARBs with certified contracts for RECs only could be exempt from all or a portion of the costs of Rider RPS only.
• ARBs with certified Bundled Contracts could be exempt from all or a portion of the costs associated with new solar or onshore wind, energy, or environmental attributes, and/or energy storage facilities (Rider CE, Rider PPA and Rider RPS).

How does a customer qualify for exemption from only “a portion of new solar or onshore wind, energy or environmental attributes, or energy storage facilities (currently Rider CE and Rider RPS)?”

A customer may be exempt from a portion of Renewable Portfolio Standard costs based on the RECs or renewable energy obtained pursuant to its arrangements or contracts in proportion to the customer’s total electric energy consumption on an annual basis. For example, if the RPS requirement is 14% in 2020 and a customer only has renewables that qualify for the ARB exemption equating to 10% of their total electric energy consumption, then the customer would only be exempt from 10/14ths of the Renewable Portfolio Standard related costs (currently Rider CE and Rider RPS). The customer would be required to pay for the remaining 4/14th% of costs for these two riders. The qualifying contract percentage is applied to each rider to determine the exemption amount, i.e., a qualifying contract can be applied to both Rider CE and Rider RPS and is not consumed by one rider before another contract must be considered.

Can the costs of offshore wind be offset by RPS Compliance resources under the ARB section of the code?

No, the ARB exemption does not apply to the costs associated with offshore wind.

How often does a potential ARB customer have to certify?

Certification is for one year. Customers certified as ARBs through this process shall be exempt from the applicable charges, which could be a full or partial exemption, for one year starting June 1 through and concluding the following May 31.

Why has the Company requested the companies submit a certification form by March 1 to exempt themselves from the 2023 cost of RPS Compliance resources?

In the order, The Company was directed to complete the ARB certification process annually by May 1.

Do RECs under customer certified contracts count towards the Company’s RPS Program Compliance Requirements?

All RECs associated with contracts entered into by an ARB with the utility, or a person other than the utility, for an RPS Program, shall not be credited to the utility’s compliance with its RPS requirements, and the calculation of the utility’s RPS Program requirements shall not include the electric load covered by customers certified as ARBs.

How can a Customer contact the Company regarding the ARB certification process?

Please direct all questions and concerns regarding the ARB certification process to CertifyARBs@DominionEnergy.com or contact your Key Account Manager.