Virginia’s Henrico County Tells Staff to Cut Power Use as Data Centers Drive 25% Rate Hike
- Policy & Markets Regulatory State & Local Regulation
Marin Holt
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- 6 minutes read
- Government electricity rate increase: 25%
- Added county cost: $5 million
- Data centers in Henrico County: 37
- Effective date: July 1, 2026
Henrico County, Virginia, has asked thousands of its employees to cut electricity use after the rate it pays for power at every county government and school building jumped 25% on July 1, 2026, an increase county officials estimate will add roughly $5 million to the budget over the next fiscal year. County Manager John Vithoulkas laid out the request in an email obtained by 404 Media, tying the sudden cost to the data-center boom reshaping electricity demand across the Commonwealth, where Henrico alone hosts 37 data centers.
“Beginning July 1st, the rate we pay for electricity used in all Henrico County government and school facilities will increase dramatically, by 25%.”
John Vithoulkas, Henrico County Manager
Vithoulkas asked staff to turn off lights when leaving, shut down computers, pull blinds closed, and unplug chargers, everyday habits meant to blunt a bill increase that no single office caused. The rate change does not stop at Henrico’s borders: the county buys power through the Virginia Energy Purchasing Governmental Association (VEPGA), and the same 25% jump hits VEPGA members across most municipalities north of Richmond.
The Data-Center Connection
Virginia hosts more data centers than any other state, and Northern Virginia contains more than a quarter of all U.S. data-center capacity. As that load spreads south into the Richmond region, the cost of new transmission, generation, and capacity lands on every ratepayer’s bill. Days before Henrico’s increase took effect, the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved new Dominion Energy rates that shift a larger share of system costs onto data centers, a regulatory attempt to keep the industry’s demand from being subsidized by households and local governments.
Critical Perspective
Henrico County faces a 25% electricity rate increase that adds roughly $5 million to its budget while the county hosts 37 data centers driving that demand. Asking staff to switch off lights and unplug chargers is a rounding error against a structural cost, and it does nothing about who reserves the capacity that pushed rates up in the first place. Ohio offers a sharper template: in 2025 the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved an AEP Ohio tariff forcing large data centers to pay for a minimum share of the capacity they request, a cost-assignment fix Virginia’s regulators are only beginning to copy. If the real remedy is billing hyperscale load for the grid it triggers, why is the immediate burden still landing on county payrolls and public-school budgets rather than the 37 facilities next door?
Why It Matters
A local government publicly instructing its own workforce to conserve power marks a new phase in the data-center cost debate. For years the strain surfaced in wholesale capacity auctions and utility filings; now it reaches the thermostat settings of county offices and the operating budgets of public schools. Henrico’s $5 million hit is a preview for any community courting hyperscale computing: the jobs and tax base arrive with a power bill that everyone else helps pay. The question ahead is whether other VEPGA members issue similar conservation notices, and whether Virginia’s move to reassign costs to data centers slows the pass-through to residential and municipal ratepayers.
Sources
- 404 Media: County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to ‘Conserve Electricity’ (June 26, 2026)
- Fox Business: Virginia county urges power-saving measures amid 25% electricity rate hike (July 3, 2026)
- Inside Climate News: Virginia Regulators Approve New Dominion Rates, Assign More Costs to Data Centers (July 1, 2026)
- Slashdot: County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools To ‘Conserve Electricity’ (June 30, 2026)
