Youngkin’s changes to bills that would let utilities seek approval to charge customers for nuclear development costs clear General Assembly

Changes made by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to bills that would allow two electric utilities to seek approval to charge customers for early development costs for small modular nuclear reactors were approved Wednesday by the House of Delegates and Senate.

The governor’s amendments to HB 1491 , which apply only to Appalachian Power, were approved by the House in a 64-34 vote with one abstention, while the vote in the Senate was 26-14.

The changes to the House bill mean that Appalachian Power can request permission to charge for development costs no earlier than July 1. Also, beginning July 1, 2025, the utility can file annually to recover project development costs as long as the annual revenue requirement doesn’t exceed $25 million and the overall project development costs don’t exceed $125 million, excluding the site cost. Any such rate adjustment can’t be implemented before Jan. 1, 2026.

Amendments to SB 454 , which apply only to Dominion Power, were approved by the Senate in a 27-13 vote, while the House concurred in a 68-27 vote, with one abstention.

[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy .]

The Senate bill changes also mean that Dominion cannot recover any costs prior to this July, while the amount charged to the typical residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month cannot exceed $1.40, and only 80% of development costs can be collected until an SMR is in operation.

Both bills require the utilities to get approval from the State Corporation Commission to charge for development costs.

SMRs are smaller and simpler than traditional nuclear reactors and can be built in a factory and shipped to a site, which saves time, reduces the risks and is cheaper.

In October 2022, Youngkin announced he planned to deploy a commercial SMR within 10 years, but no site has been chosen. No SMR has yet been built in the United States.

Both Appalachian Power and Dominion have expressed interest in building SMRs in the future, but no commitments have been made.

The bills now go back to Youngkin for his signature and take effect July 1.

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