By Shirleen Guerra | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Dominion Energy says a 90-day federal pause on offshore wind construction could affect grid reliability as the utility continues work on the nation’s largest offshore wind project off the Virginia coast.
The U.S. Department of the Interior ordered the temporary pause, citing national security concerns related to offshore wind development.
The pause applies to Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, a roughly $11 billion development located 27 to 44 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Dominion has said the project is designed to generate up to 2,600 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 660,000 homes, and is already well into the construction phase.
In a statement, Dominion Energy warned that a prolonged delay at this stage of construction could disrupt grid planning and reliability as electricity demand continues to rise across Virginia, and could affect jobs tied to construction and the supply chain.
Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., whose district includes Virginia Beach, said the timing of the pause raises concerns for Hampton Roads, citing the project’s role in regional energy supply and military readiness.
“Halting CVOW at this stage is disastrous for our energy security, our local economy, and our national security as it relates to military readiness. I am anxiously awaiting answers from the administration regarding this directive,” Kiggans said in a statement.
State regulators have documented the scale of recent grid investments tied to reliability and demand growth. According to the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Dec. 1, 2025, annual report on grid modernization, Dominion Energy Virginia has invested more than $4 billion across generation, transmission and distribution projects. The report shows about $1.6 billion went toward generation, $1.2 billion toward transmission and $1.3 billion toward distribution.
Virginia utilities plan and operate within the PJM Interconnection regional grid, which coordinates electricity transmission and reliability across 13 states and the District of Columbia.
A separate U.S. Department of Energy July 2025 Resource Adequacy Report warned that electricity demand is rising nationwide, driven in part by large commercial users and data centers.
Dominion said the offshore wind project has been in development for more than a decade and involved coordination with the military, as electricity demand continues to grow from data centers and other large users across Virginia.
“Virginia needs every electron we can get as our demand for electricity doubles,” the company said in a statement. “Virginia’s grid needs addition of electrons, not subtraction.”