**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Skeptical Observer’s Dispatch

HEADLINE: Dominion Energy’s ‘Green’ Grid Lockdown: Ratepayers Foot the Bill for a Private Data Empire

RICHMOND, VA – Dominion Energy, the utility giant that powers over 7 million customers, is quietly rolling out a nationwide “grid modernization” program that critics say has less to do with reliability and more to do with surveillance—and profit.

The utility recently secured a $2.4 billion federal grant to deploy a network of smart sensors and advanced data analytics across its eastern seaboard footprint. The stated goal: “prevent outages” and “integrate renewable energy.”

But here’s the angle the Wall Street Journal isn’t reporting: The real beneficiaries aren’t ratepayers—they’re Dominion’s shareholders and a secretive consortium of private data brokers.

According to leaked internal emails obtained by this outlet, Dominion has partnered with a little-known subsidiary of BlackRock called “GridBrain Inc.” Under the agreement, Dominion will collect granular, real-time energy usage data from every home and business on its grid. While Dominion promises to anonymize the data, the fine print of the contract—buried in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission—reveals that GridBrain retains “perpetual, royalty-free, and transferable” rights to sell aggregated consumption patterns to advertisers, insurance companies, and even law enforcement agencies.

“This isn’t about preventing blackouts,” one former Dominion senior engineer told us on condition of anonymity. “This is about creating the most intimate database of American behavior ever compiled. They’ll know when you wake up, when you’re on vacation, how many kids you have, and whether you’re using a medical device. And you—the ratepayer—are paying for the infrastructure to make it happen.”

The math is simple: The $2.4 billion grant comes from your federal taxes.