The leaders of Dominion Energy have tweaked their capital spending forecasts through 2035, beefing up from their previous plan – which covered an extra two years – the amount of money allocated to offshore wind and solar projects.
The company’s investments penciled out for the next decade and change, most of them focused on decarbonization, now total $73 billion. Richmond-based Dominion last fall said it expected to spend a total of $72 billion from 2020 through 2035, with $26 billion of that coming in the 2021-2025 window.
Speaking on a conference call after reporting their fourth-quarter results, Chairman, President and CEO Bob Blue and CFO Jim Chapman said that cycling out of last year and adding 2026 to their five-year investment plan brings on all the remaining expected costs of the $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. That grows the forecast five-year capex total to $37 billion from $32 billion, money Dominion’s leaders said will help them modernize their grid but still sustain steady earnings and dividend growth rates through at least 2026.
Looking to the long term, Dominion’s updated capital plan – the large majority of which Blue said will quality for various forms of cost recovery – breaks down as follows:
• Offshore wind: From roughly $17 billion in the 2020-2035 plan to up to $21 billion for 2022 to 2035
• Solar: From about $20 billion to $21 billion for the new, shorter time frame
• Energy storage: From up to $7 billion down to about $4 billion
• Nuclear life extension: Level at up to $4 billion, albeit in the shorter time window
• Electric grid transformation: Level at up to $15 billion
• Gas distribution modernization: From up to $9 billion down to roughly $8 billion from 2022 to 2035
Blue and Chapman released those numbers and other projections Feb. 11 along with Dominion’s Q4 earnings, which topped $1.3 billion versus $682 million in late 2020. The duo also said they have reached a deal to sell Hope Gas Inc., which does business of Dominion Energy West Virginia and has about 110,000 customers, for $690 million to Ullico Inc. The proceeds from that deal, which is expected to close late this year, will go toward reducing Dominion’s debt.
Shares of Dominion (Ticker: D) were up about 1% in afternoon trading Feb. 11. They are up slightly from six months ago, growing the company’s market capitalization to $64 billion.
