Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) President and CEO John Hewa gave the keynote address at the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce Regionalism Matters Energy Forum on Nov. 12, 2025. More than 40 attended the breakfast event, representing business, government and community leaders from across the region.
Hewa called on the leaders to partner on the large-scale, immediate action needed to ensure the Commonwealth’s energy future and mitigate the foreseeable energy shortages driven by rapidly escalating energy demand.
“The status quo is not sustainable,” Hewa warned, citing a 2025 U.S. Department of Energy Study. “We’ve got to bring new tools the table. We’ve got to build nationally to keep up with the pace, the needs and the demands to stay on top globally with AI. And supply is falling short of new demand requests which is a risk to reliability.”
The current outlook demands action now, both nationally and in our state, Hewa emphasized, illustrating the energy capacity challenges through key metrics and trends. “Virginia needs to double its capacity by 2040 according to PJM forecasts, either in the Commonwealth, or in a neighboring state.”
PJM is a regional transmission organization that serves all or parts of 13 states, including Virginia.
Hewa also emphasized the need to consider all available options to address energy capacity generation, and to factor in the wide variance in capital costs associated with different types of infrastructure investments. He concluded that for every $10 billion in data center investment, Virginia needs $3.5 - $10.5 billion in generation investment. Hewa advocated for siting the new generation in Virginia as the solution to the energy challenge through more economic growth.
“Virginia is increasingly leaning on neighboring states to solve our energy needs. Meeting our demand though generation infrastructure in Virginia would provide stronger energy security, reduce risks, promote affordability and bring more jobs and investment into the Commonwealth,” Hewa said. “The fix for Virginia’s energy challenge, is in fact, more investment that supports the state and our local economies.”
Hewa wrapped up his comments by asking the audience to partner in advancing four solutions to ensure Virginia’s ability to meet the demands of its residents and its continued economic development.
- Accelerating regulatory processes.
- Accelerating permitting processes.
- Invoking energy storage and generation.
- Immediately authorizing 10,000MW of dispatchable baseload generation, sited in Virginia.
“These solutions could position Virginia as the absolute epicenter of energy technology deployment and development,” Hewa. “We are so well positioned to be the place where this is solved, where we have the right mix of traditional resources and new resources and we’re home to the next generation of energy tech developers here in the Commonwealth.”
