The five-megawatt electric gate before any Dominion generation conversation
The State Corporation Commission explains that electricity customers with annual demands greater than five megawatts may shop for competitive electricity supply. That sentence is the eligibility test for a standalone laundry, not a marketing slogan. A typical coin-op demand profile measured in tens of kilowatts sits orders of magnitude below five megawatts.
Dominion Energy Virginia is the incumbent for Richmond, Hampton Roads, and much of the eastern population corridor. Appalachian Power serves other western and southwestern territories. Both remain the default generation and delivery providers for sub-threshold commercial accounts. Switching the logo on a mailer does not move a dryer bank across the statutory line.
Aggregation of smaller nonresidential accounts can exist only through Commission-approved processes. Two stores in the same ownership group do not become a five-megawatt customer by adding nameplate dryer kilowatts on a spreadsheet. Approval, if it exists, is a docketed matter—not a broker handshake.
2007 legislation re-established retail rate regulation for most electricity customers. Choice survived in narrow categories. Owners who remember earlier restructuring years should not assume those rules still apply to a 2026 coin laundry meter.
PJM locational prices may influence default-service filings. They do not enroll a Competitive Service Provider on a sub-threshold Dominion or Appalachian Power account.
Gas CSPs on Columbia Gas, Washington Gas, and Virginia Natural Gas
Retail natural gas choice is the procurement path that actually exists for many commercial dryers. Columbia Gas of Virginia, Washington Gas, and Virginia Natural Gas host licensed Competitive Service Providers for commodity while the local distribution company continues pipeline delivery, metering, and emergency response.
Those three LDCs do not share one marketer list or one delivery tariff. A Richmond-area Columbia Gas account cannot use a Hampton Roads Virginia Natural Gas quote without retagging the utility. Northern Virginia Washington Gas footprints are a third file. Confirm the LDC name on the bill header before requesting offers.
The Commission licenses CSPs and aggregators and publishes the current list with service-territory codes. A company licensed only for Washington Gas is not thereby licensed for Virginia Natural Gas. Registration with the LDC is a separate operational step from the Commission license.
Compare CSP commodity terms to the default gas supply applicable to your commercial class on that LDC. Delivery riders stay with the pipeline company after a switch. Mixing delivery into a commodity savings claim misstates what the CSP can change.
Liberty or municipal gas pockets and electric cooperatives can sit outside these three LDC stories. Address-level confirmation still comes first.
How the Commission licensed-CSP list should be used
The Competitive Service Providers and Aggregators page is the statewide source of record for who may sell competitive energy services. Licenses can cover the whole Commonwealth or only named LDC territories. Customer-class codes on the list distinguish commercial, industrial, gas, and other authorizations.
Read the list before signing, then confirm the CSP is also registered to switch customers on your LDC. A license without LDC registration can stall enrollment even when the Commission row looks complete.
Aggregators are licensed to pool customers and broker purchases. That license does not, by itself, waive the five-megawatt electric test for a standalone laundry. Ask whether any electric aggregation petition actually includes accounts like yours; most will not.
The Choosing an Energy Supplier page is the consumer-facing companion to the license list. Use it for process, not for invented prices. This guide does not publish cents-per-kilowatt-hour or therm rates.
Archive a dated copy of the list in the procurement folder. Roster rows change. A screenshot from a prior owner's closing binder can name a company that no longer holds the needed territory code.
Reading bills when electric stays default and gas may show a CSP
Dominion or Appalachian Power electric invoices for typical laundromats show regulated default generation and delivery. There is no shoppable REP line hiding under a rider label. Separate distribution and generation when reviewing month-to-month changes so tariff updates are not mistaken for a supplier switch you never made.
Gas invoices show LDC delivery plus either default commodity or a CSP name. After enrollment, the first bill should still carry pipeline safety and delivery under utility headings. Only the commodity block should reflect the new supplier.
Military, university, or tourism volume swings change therms and kWh. They do not change the five-megawatt electric test. Seasonal load is a contract-length input on gas, not an eligibility workaround on electric.
Acquisition diligence should identify the electric incumbent and the gas LDC as two facts. Sellers often describe generic choice that applied only to a prior gas CSP enrollment.
Staff need the electric utility outage number and the gas LDC emergency number. CSP billing desks do not restore feeders or dig for leaks.
- Confirm annual demand against the five-megawatt individual electric test.
- Name Columbia Gas, Washington Gas, or Virginia Natural Gas before requesting CSP quotes.
- Save a dated Commission CSP list with the matching territory code.
- Split default electric generation from shoppable gas commodity.
Procurement sequence that matches Commission rules
Pull billed demand history. If the account is nowhere near five megawatts and no aggregation order names the store, close the electric CSP file and keep Dominion or Appalachian Power as default generation.
Identify the gas LDC. Download the current Commission CSP list and filter to companies authorized for that LDC and for commercial gas. Request disclosures that match your class, then compare them to default gas commodity—not to delivery.
Read term, renewal, and assignment language. A store sale can leave a gas CSP auto-renewal in place if the contract file never reached the buyer.
If a vendor insists electric shopping is available, ask for the Commission authority that applies to this exact account. Vague references to renewable options or to large-customer tariffs are not a substitute for the five-megawatt individual test.
Independent review focuses on LDC-correct gas product fit and on documenting electric ineligibility. That is a narrower scope than dual-fuel RFPs imported from Ohio or Pennsylvania.
Territory traps: one Commission, three gas LDCs, two large electric incumbents
Richmond-area Columbia Gas or Washington Gas mechanics do not copy onto Virginia Beach or Norfolk Virginia Natural Gas accounts even when Dominion Energy Virginia prints on both electric bills.
Appalachian Power territories in the west use the same five-megawatt individual electric concept with a different default-service tariff book. Do not paste Dominion line-item labels onto an APCo invoice.
Electric cooperatives and municipal systems can appear in rural and suburban fringes. Their choice rules are not the Dominion default story and may not include the same gas CSP lists.
Maryland or District of Columbia supplier offers do not travel across the Potomac onto a Dominion or Washington Gas Virginia account. License and LDC registration are jurisdiction-specific.
PJM zone conversation in a sales deck is wholesale color. It is not an enrollment form.
Statewide owner checklist before a CSP signature
Write down billed peak demand and state whether it exceeds five megawatts. For a typical coin laundry the answer is no. Keep that sentence in the acquisition memo so later readers do not reopen a closed electric file.
Name the gas LDC and pull two Commission-licensed CSPs authorized for that territory. Compare commodity only. Post pipeline emergency contacts for staff.
If anyone proposes aggregating stores to reach five megawatts, stop and ask for the Commission petition path. Do not combine loads informally.
After a gas enrollment, inspect the first invoice for LDC delivery labels and CSP commodity labels. Calendar the gas renewal on its own reminder—not on an electric rate-case news clip.
Independent review for these stores is a threshold check plus an LDC-specific gas comparison. That is the work the Commission structure actually supports.
- Close individual electric shopping unless demand exceeds five megawatts.
- Filter the Commission CSP list by LDC territory code.
- Treat aggregation as a docket, not a handshake.
- Keep Dominion or APCo outage numbers on the attendant desk.
- Do not import Mid-Atlantic portal workflows from other states.
