Henrico County electricity rates for schools rise 25% amid 37 data centers and 17 planned

County Manager John Vithoulkas emailed thousands of staff, including teachers, directing conservation steps such as powering down computers, limiting space heaters, and adjusting blinds. The directive follows Virginia's 2023 rate-hike legislation that included nominal protections for residential customers but left local governments exposed to wholesale spikes. Henrico hosts 37 data centers with another 17 slated, including sites on historic battlefield land, creating concentrated load that Dominion Energy has met partly with temporary diesel generators.

Data from county filings and Dominion rate cases show data-center demand now accounts for over 20% of peak load growth in the PJM zone serving Henrico. Residential bills in the county rose 12-18% year-over-year in 2023-2024 despite solar and heat-pump adoption by some households. Temporary generation permits for new centers authorize more than 300 diesel units, each emitting NOx and particulates at levels documented in Virginia DEQ air permits.

The $5 million shortfall directly reduces funds available for school operations and first-responder staffing. Similar patterns appear in Loudoun County and Prince William County, where data-center-driven transmission upgrades lag load by 24-36 months. Without new baseload or storage on the same timeline as hyperscale builds, ratepayers and county budgets absorb the interim costs.

Dominion's next integrated resource plan filing, due December 2025, will quantify whether 2026-2027 rate cases embed further data-center pass-throughs exceeding the 2023 mitigation caps.