Graded Moderate and tightening. 20 laws, orders, rulings and local actions, each with its source, reviewed 23 October 2026.
Dominion's GS-5 class (approved November 2025, effective January 1, 2027) requires upfront collateral and 14-year contracts; demand flexibility is voluntary.
GS-5 (effective January 1, 2027) sets 85 and 60 percent minimums with exit fees, HB 1393 (July 1, 2026) reopens allocation to 2033, plus a 1.1 cent kWh tax.
HB 153 (effective July 1, 2026) is a statewide site assessment law, and Loudoun, the main market, paused legislative votes on September 15, 2026.
The June 2026 budget kept the sales and use tax exemption intact through 2035 and dropped the Senate's 2027 phase-out.
HB 496 (spring 2026) makes water users that supply data centers report volumes, a mandatory reporting rule without limits.
Scored on rules in force, 1 to 5. 5 is the most regulated. Pending rules set the arrow.
Virginia kept its data center sales and use tax exemption (scheduled through 2035) after a budget standoff in which the Senate tried to end it in 2027, but the 2026 to 2028 budget added a 1.1 cent per kWh tax on data center electricity, including self-supplied power. The State Corporation Commission created Dominion's GS-5 class for customers of 25 MW or more, with 14-year contracts and minimum demand payments, effective 1 January 2027, a 2026 law tells Dominion to propose shifting more capacity and distribution costs onto that class in rate cases from 2027, and in August 2026 the commission ordered Dominion to design a tariff directly assigning transmission costs to large loads. Governor Spanberger signed site assessment, water reporting and demand flexibility laws in 2026, reversing Governor Youngkin's 2025 veto of the site assessment bill, and on 13 August 2026 ruled out a statewide moratorium. Locally, the 2,100-acre Prince William Digital Gateway is dead after the courts voided its rezoning, Loudoun ended by-right approval in 2025 and on 15 September 2026 paused its votes on data center applications needing legislative approval for up to 12 months, and several other localities have paused applications.
Loudoun's formal resolution on its pause was deferred to 17 November 2026; the pause covers only board votes on legislative applications, by-right cases continue, and it runs until the county's standards review finishes in summer 2027. Sen. Russet Perry's SB 843, released 13 October 2026, would bar local approvals and state permits for data centers from 1 July 2027 to 1 July 2030 and will be before the session starting January 2027, alongside carried-over bills on cost subsidies, backup generators and an approval moratorium; a work group on data center taxation is expected to report in November 2026, and legislators have said they will revisit the exemption. GS-5 takes effect 1 January 2027, Dominion and Appalachian Power must file demand flexibility programs by 15 January 2027, Dominion's 2027 rate case will take up cost allocation, and the SCC's direct-assignment transmission tariff has no deadline yet. Stafford County's Planning Commission hears the Kings Corridor rezonings on 18 November 2026 after staff recommended denying three of four. The electricity consumption tax expires 30 June 2028 unless extended.
No statewide moratorium, but 2 local pauses are in force as of 23 October 2026, in Loudoun County, Spotsylvania County. Proposals and expired pauses are not counted.
Tightening. Virginia is graded Moderate, which means incentives alongside new costs, limits or local pushback. Loudoun pauses data center votes; state adds electricity tax and take-or-pay rate class. The outlook above says what is pending.
Virginia sits in PJM and TVA. The grid operator decides how a new large load is studied, what it must bring or pay, and whether it can be curtailed first; the state decides siting, permits, tariffs and incentives.
No. Virginia's data center incentives were not pulled back in 2025 or 2026 as of 23 October 2026.
On Genloop's five-line rubric (1 least regulated, 5 most) Virginia scores grid connection 3, power rates 5, siting and land use 4, tax treatment 1, permits and water 3, a mean of 3.2. The most regulated line is power rates: GS-5 (effective January 1, 2027) sets 85 and 60 percent minimums with exit fees, HB 1393 (July 1, 2026) reopens allocation to 2033, plus a 1.1 cent kWh tax.
20 items: each is a law, order, tariff, ruling, utility action or local decision that changes what a data center must do, pay or disclose, or where it may be built. Failed and pending measures are marked. Each links to its source.
On 15 September 2026 the Board of Supervisors voted 7-1-1 (Briskman proposing, Umstattd no, Kershner abstaining) to pause its final votes on data center and electrical substation applications that need legislative approval, effective immediately, for up to 12 months or until its Data Center Standards and Locations review finishes in summer 2027. The county attorney advised that a moratorium is not legal in Virginia, so administrative by-right cases (at least 17, more than 11 million square feet) continue, developers may keep filing and applications may move through the Planning Commission; a 7-1-1 vote added an exception for grid reliability substations. The formal resolution was deferred from the 20 October meeting to 17 November 2026.
Source: loudoun.govOn 13 October 2026 Sen. Russet Perry (D, Loudoun) released a draft bill for the 2027 session that would bar localities from approving data center rezonings, special exceptions, special use permits and site plans, and bar state agencies including the SCC and DEQ from issuing permits for data centers or the power plants, interconnections and on-site generation serving them, from 1 July 2027 to 1 July 2030.
Source: baxtel.comOn 9 October 2026 county staff recommended denying three of the four Kings Corridor Technology Campus rezonings along Route 3 (Forest Lane, Sisson North and Sisson South) as inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan and outside the Urban Services Area, and found Simms Farm inconsistent as presented. The Planning Commission hearing was moved from 14 October to 18 November 2026. The board approved the separate Accokeek Creek data center project in early October.
Source: wjla.comThe board voted 6-1 on 22 July 2026 to have staff study a pause on processing data center and substation applications. That study led to the pause adopted on 15 September 2026 (see separate item). The county's 16 September statement said the board would receive legal analysis on 6 October 2026 on whether grandfathering exceptions can be ended for at least 17 administrative cases totaling more than 11 million square feet that lack conditional approval or vested rights; if so those cases would need special exception review. No decision has been reported.
Source: loudoun.govOn 11 August 2026 the Board of Supervisors voted 4-2 for a resolution supporting Sen. Glen Sturtevant's request that Governor Spanberger pause new data center development statewide while the state studies whether and how to allow it. The county has eight data centers in the works. The resolution is advisory.
Source: wjla.comOn 13 August 2026 the governor said she would not issue a statewide data center moratorium, called local restrictions a local choice, and said she would work with the General Assembly on standards for water use, noise, land use and energy use.
Source: wjla.comIn its ruling on Dominion's rider T1 transmission rate adjustment, reported 5 August 2026, the State Corporation Commission directed Dominion to develop a policy and tariff to directly assign transmission infrastructure costs to data centers and other large-load customers whose connections drive them, and said the planned 765 kV Valley Link line could in future be assigned to the GS-5 class. Dominion had already cut its request to about $0.94 a month for a typical residential customer by shifting more cost to GS-5; no deadline for the new tariff was reported.
Source: virginiamercury.comThe Court of Appeals of Virginia on 31 March 2026 upheld a ruling voiding the December 2023 rezoning for the 2,100-acre, 23 million square foot campus because of public notice defects. The county stopped defending the rezoning on 14 April, Compass declined to appeal, and QTS withdrew its Supreme Court of Virginia appeal on 2 July 2026.
Source: fox5dc.comA tax of $0.011 per kWh applies from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2028 to electricity used by data centers of 1 MW or more, including self-generated power. Collections are capped at $600 million a year, with any excess refunded pro rata.
Source: hunton.comFront Royal and Warren County adopted a moratorium in June 2026 and Chesapeake paused applications while it amends its comprehensive plan. Prince William directed staff to draft the removal of by-right approval in its Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, and Frederick County, Virginia did the same for its zoning. Loudoun's county attorney has noted that Virginia law generally does not allow local moratoria.
Source: venable.comThe budget signed at the end of June 2026 left the exemption in place; the Senate's plan to phase it out from 1 January 2027 was dropped. The exemption costs roughly $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion a year by recent estimates, and a work group on data center taxation is expected to report in November 2026.
Source: whitefordlaw.comSigned 14 May 2026 after the legislature accepted some of the governor's amendments, effective 1 July 2026. For rate cases from 2027 to 2033 Dominion must propose allocating certain capacity and distribution costs to customers of 25 MW or more with a 75 percent load factor, and must propose a revised standby tariff for customers with their own power plants, effective January 2028.
Source: legiscan.comSigned 13 April 2026, effective 1 July 2026. Before approving a rezoning or special permit for a new high energy use facility (described as 100 MW or more), a locality must require a sound assessment for homes and schools within 500 feet, and may require assessments of water, farmland, parks, historic sites and forest.
Source: legiscan.comSigned 8 April 2026. Dominion and Appalachian Power must ask the State Corporation Commission by 15 January 2027 to approve voluntary demand flexibility programs for high energy demand customers (about 25 MW and above), and electric cooperatives must have programs by 1 January 2029.
Source: legiscan.comSigned by Governor Spanberger in spring 2026 (amends Va. Code 62.1-44.38). Water users that supply data centers must report the volume of water supplied, including reclaimed water use.
Source: bdlaw.comOf 61 data center bills in the 2026 session, 15 reached the governor. Carried over to 2027 were SB 339 (a commission proceeding on whether large customers are subsidized), SB 336 and HB 1502 (limits on and study of diesel backup generators) and HB 1515 (a temporary moratorium on approvals).
Source: multistate.usIn November 2025 the State Corporation Commission created a class for customers of 25 MW or more with a 75 percent load factor: 14-year contracts, minimum payments of 85 percent of contracted transmission and distribution demand and 60 percent of generation demand, upfront collateral and exit fees. It takes effect 1 January 2027; the commission left broader cost allocation to the 2027 rate case.
Source: insideclimatenews.orgThe 2025 bill requiring site and noise assessments for proposed data centers was vetoed in May 2025 as limiting local discretion. A near-identical bill became law in 2026 as HB 153.
Source: broadbandbreakfast.comOn 18 March 2025 Loudoun ended by-right data center development; projects now need a special exception with Planning Commission and board hearings. Applications under review as of 12 February 2025 kept by-right status only if the data center is more than 500 feet from residential areas and the application has no substantial changes.
Source: hklaw.comThe legislature's audit commission reported in December 2024 that unconstrained power demand could double within 10 years, that the exemption saved the industry $928 million in fiscal 2023, and that a typical Dominion residential bill could rise $14 to $37 a month by 2040. It suggested a separate data center rate class and local authority over water and sound studies.
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