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As amended by substitution on February 10, 2026  HB921 was signed into law by the Virginia Governor.    This bill will allow any nonresidential customer with an annual noncoincident peak (NCP) over 5MW in the most recent calendar year to receive service from a third-party supplier. This bill is identical to SB 818.

This new law significantly alters regulations for large nonresidential retail electricity customers, particularly regarding their ability to purchase energy from licensed retail suppliers and the notice required to return to service with an incumbent utility. 

This bill goes into effect July 1, 2026.

Key Provisions of HB921

The amended bill makes several key changes to Virginia’s energy market:

• Retail Choice: Allows nonresidential customers with peak demand over 5 megawatts to purchase electricity from licensed suppliers.
• Return-to-Service Notice: Reduces the required notice to return to an incumbent utility from five years to 18 months.
• Minimum Stay: Imposes a 30-month minimum stay for customers returning to the incumbent utility.
• Renewable Standards: Requires suppliers to meet RPS standards for sold energy.

Among other things this bill permits an individual nonresidential retail customer of electric energy of Appalachian Power or Dominion Energy Virginia whose noncoincident peak demand exceeded five megawatts during the most recent calendar year to purchase electric energy from a licensed supplier within the Commonwealth. Currently, such a customer may only purchase electric energy from a licensed supplier if the customer’s peak demand did not exceed one percent of the incumbent electric utility’s peak load during the most recent calendar year unless the customer had a noncoincident peak demand of more than 90 megawatts. The bill changes from five years to eighteen months the advance notice period required for such a customer to return to service by an incumbent electric utility.

The bill would also remove the requirement that the customer’s NCP have not exceeded 1% of its utility’s load unless it was at least 90MW.

The bill would also presumptively prohibit meeting the 5MW threshold through aggregation, though it maintains the option to petition SCC for permission and the direction that SCC must take into account the impact on the utility and consistency with public interest in evaluating such petitions.

The bill would also reduce the required notice to return to utility service from five years to 18 months and set the stay upon return at 12 months.