Understanding Rates

Learn about your rate and where your payment goes.

Electric Rates Overview

Your energy rate helps pay for the cost of delivering electricity to you, and to support projects that will meet the ever-growing demand for more energy. Several factors affect the rate you pay, including how much energy you use, the cost of fuel, the time of year, and your customer type – whether you're a homeowner, business, or industrial user.

There are two main factors that determine your monthly electric bill:

Household Usage. Greater reliance on air conditioning and electric heating tends to result in higher bills, especially during peak summer and winter months. Is your energy usage high? You may be eligible for energy efficiency programs, which can help reduce your monthly electricity usage.
Generating and Delivering Electricity. Electric utility service in Virginia is regulated by the non-partisan State Corporation Commission. Dominion Energy can't raise rates whenever it wants, because it is a regulated utility. The SCC exists to protect customers by ensuring electric rates are fair, reasonable, and tied to the actual cost of providing service – not inflated for excess profit. Before any rate changes take effect, the SCC thoroughly examines utility proposals, audit expenses, and sets limits on how much profit companies can earn. This oversight helps prevent overcharging and ensures you pay only what is necessary for reliable service. You can learn more about rates here.

Due to routine updates to the grid, the underlying cost of electric service frequently changes, even if your household electricity usage remains the same.

What Are the Parts of an Electric Bill in Virginia?

Want to better understand each part of your electric bill?

Visit Understand My Bill cta btn

Where Does My Dollar Go?

Your Dollar Broken Down

Over 75% of your bill covers power generation and delivery costs, including:

Purchases of natural gas, coal, oil, and other fuel sources to operate power stations.
Preparing existing nuclear stations to operate for decades to come.
Burying our most outage-prone overhead neighborhood power lines.
Strengthening the power grid against severe weather and physical/cyber security threats.
Enabling our system to more easily integrate renewable resources.

The remainder of your bill goes toward:

Public policy objectives such as solar, wind, and energy storage resource development, along with implementing energy conservation programs.
The tools and systems we use to support customer service.
Taxes we collect on behalf of the state government and your locality.
A portion of your payment supports capital investments approved by state regulators, helping maintain and improve service. We transfer expenses like fuel and taxes directly, ensuring you're only charged what we pay.

Understanding My Bill

By understanding where your dollars go and how your bill is structured, you can make more informed decisions.

Here is how you can break down the different parts of your bill cta btn

Frequently Asked Questions

Not at all. In fact, your conservation efforts are more valuable than ever.

When energy rates rise, every kilowatt-hour you save is worth more. For example, cutting 100kWh when rates are 10¢ saves $10 – but if rates jump to 15¢, that same effort can save $15. By continuing to use less energy, you're less affected by price increases. And your conservation efforts help reduce demand on the energy grid, which lowers emissions and supports sustainability.

As more people rely on digital devices, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and remote work setups, the need for electricity continues to grow. As more people, families and businesses move into the area and new homes and neighborhoods pop up, that means more lights, more appliances, more energy needed to power everyday living.

Rising costs are frustrating, and it's important to understand what's driving them. The SCC approved an adjustment fuel charge that goes into effect in January 2026. This is the first base rate increase since 1992. This increase is due to an expired fuel credit that has historically reduced costs and to help cover rising costs of generation and delivery, which include labor and maintenance costs. In 2026, the average residential bill will see an average increase of $11.24. In 2027, another rate increase will go into effect which will increase bills by $2.36 on average. You can read more about the rate increase here.

To make sure you have the power you need, when you need it, Dominion Energy is working on adding more power sources and is completing state-mandated infrastructure and environmental projects. The SCC supported this rate increase to ensure enough energy was generated to meet the community's energy demand.

Additional Resources

Energy Savings Finder

Answer a few simple questions and we'll match you with programs and resources designed for your home and budget. It's fast, easy, and could make a difference.

Discover ways to save & manage your bill