Virginia Data Center Order Ends Fast-Track Aid Above 25 MW

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order on September 18 that immediately removes new data center projects with anticipated peak demand of 25 MW or more from state site-readiness and expedited-review programs.

The Virginia data center order also bars executive agencies from entering or enforcing new nondisclosure agreements that block public access to material information about proposed commercial projects. It directs agencies to review backup generation, noise, water use, grid reliability and electricity-cost allocation, but many broader changes in the governor’s framework still require legislation or rulemaking.

The distinction matters for developers and ratepayers. Executive Order 22 changes how state agencies handle qualifying projects now, while proposals such as eliminating by-right local approvals, changing utility cost allocation and limiting on-site natural-gas generation are not yet statewide law.

Virginia data center order sets immediate restrictions

The governor’s announcement presents the action as part of a five-part Data Center Accountability Framework covering transparency, environmental protection, energy costs, clean energy and grid reliability, and workforce standards.

The signed executive order contains several directives that took effect on issuance:

• Executive agencies may not enter, enforce or require nondisclosure agreements that prevent disclosure of material information about proposed commercial data centers, subject to limited exceptions such as national security and existing contractual commitments.
• The Virginia Economic Development Partnership may not provide site-readiness, expedited-permitting or similar discretionary state assistance to new data center projects expecting peak electrical demand of at least 25 MW.
• The Office of the Chief Energy Officer becomes the lead coordinator for the statewide framework.

The 25 MW threshold does not itself ban a project or cancel a local permit. It removes access to specified state assistance. The separate proposal to require local approval for every data center above 25 MW is part of the framework the governor wants lawmakers to address in the 2027 General Assembly session.

Backup power and grid impacts face new reviews

Within 180 days, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality must report findings and recommendations from a cumulative review of diesel and other backup generation. The review must consider generator numbers, capacity, fuel, expected operating hours, geographic concentration and localized air-quality effects. It must also examine cleaner options including battery storage, fuel cells, Tier IV engines and other firm technologies.

That requirement targets a practical issue for large computing campuses: backup fleets can include hundreds of engines even when their intended role is emergency service. Microgrid Media’s report on Amazon’s North Carolina backup generators illustrates the scale and permitting questions that can arise when permanent emergency power is combined with temporary generation.

The order also directs Virginia Energy to evaluate ride-through, voltage protection and other operating practices with PJM, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and utilities. The Chief Energy Officer must work with utilities and regulators on allocating infrastructure costs to the large loads that cause them and on possible curtailment procedures for facilities that do not bring new capacity under PJM’s proposed Interim Resource Adequacy Service.

State action goes beyond the recent House bill

The order arrives two days after the U.S. House passed a federal data center ratepayer bill covering facilities above 100 MW. That measure would require state commissions to consider cost-allocation standards if it becomes law. Virginia’s action is separate: it applies state executive authority now and assigns Virginia agencies specific implementation work.

Virginia is not the first state to remove data centers from expedited programs. Pennsylvania adopted a comparable fast-track permitting restriction in August, while also addressing project secrecy and energy affordability. The two orders concern different jurisdictions and separate state programs.

Reuters reported that the Virginia framework reflects widening political pressure over electricity bills and environmental impacts. The Piedmont Environmental Council offered a more critical assessment, saying the plan focuses mainly on new development and leaves existing projects and the current pipeline largely untouched.

Implementation will determine the order’s reach

The Virginia data center order sets a 120-day deadline for an initial community-planning toolkit, several 180-day agency reviews and a 240-day deadline for lower-impact siting recommendations. Proposed VA-LEAD criteria for rating responsible developments are due by the end of 2027.

Those deliverables should reveal how the administration translates the framework into permitting, incentives and grid practices. Until lawmakers act, the most durable immediate changes are the nondisclosure restriction, the exclusion of projects at or above 25 MW from specified state development programs and the formal agency work ordered on backup power, reliability, water, noise and cost allocation.