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On any given day in Virginia, thousands of homes quietly power themselves through rooftop solar and share extra electricity with their neighbors. That simple exchange is called net metering: When your panels produce more energy than you’re using at the moment, the surplus flows to the grid and you receive a bill credit. It just makes sense, and it helps everyone in the community.
Now Dominion Energy wants to rewrite those rules — shrinking what families earn, while protecting its monopoly profits. The proposed new rules would not only severely decrease energy savings for solar owners and prevent more families from going solar, they would keep bills high for everyone.
Here’s what’s at stake. The utility wants to cut solar credits by one-third of their current price, while also changing how those credits are counted. Instead of letting families balance energy use over a full year — so summer sunlight can offset winter bills — they’d reset the math every 30 minutes. Families who aren’t home during the day would lose much of the value their systems create. Dominion’s suggested proposal is a dirty math trick that makes household economics worse and takes away the fair credit that Virginians have earned by sharing their solar with neighbors.
Virginia already has a workable framework. Homeowners can size their systems to match their yearly use, businesses can do the same at a larger scale, and state law caps participation to keep the grid reliable. These guardrails were designed to balance customer choice and utility stability — and they’re working.
We also have fresh guidance from regulators. In August, the State Corporation Commission rejected Appalachian Power’s bid to slash the 1:1 retail credit for net metered households and move away from annual netting, emphasizing that a 12-month period is essential to an effective program. That decision isn’t a guarantee in Dominion’s case, but it’s a strong signal from the SCC about what fair crediting looks like in Virginia law and practice.
Why does this matter for Virginians that don’t own solar? Distributed, locally generated generation reduces midday strain and defers some of the most expensive grid investments. When households receive a fair retail credit across a full year, more of them go solar; when more of them go solar, all ratepayers benefit from a system that’s less peaky and less capital-intensive. That’s a practical outcome that benefits the entire community.
This is also an affordability decision, driven by rising utility costs. So we should be working even harder to help stabilize our electricity bills through programs such as net metering, which allows households to hedge against such rate hikes.
As Solar United Neighbors’ Virginia program director, I work with churches, households and small businesses across the state. I’ve seen the difference annual netting makes. Families and congregations size their solar systems to match their yearly energy needs. The math works because June surplus offsets January demand. Change that to 30 minutes and the system never gets a fair chance to “net out.”
In Dominion territory today, solar owners receive a net metering credit at 1:1 at the retail rate. That clarity is why solar pencils out for middle-income families — not just early adopters. While current solar owners would be grandfathered, any changes would impact Virginia families who are still preparing to invest in solar.
The SCC should keep two anchors in place: a 1:1 retail credit for energy sent to the grid and a 12-month netting period. Virginians deserve a policy that rewards what they contribute — not a system that erases it.
If you have a story to share, now is the time. Submit a public comment and, if you can, register to speak at the Jan. 20 hearing (registration closes Jan. 13).
Brandon Praileau is the pastor of Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church in Norfolk and Virginia program director for Solar United Neighbors.
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