Virginia · Permitting
Virginia's 2026 General Assembly sent 15 data-center bills to the governor, left 46 on the carryover list, and moved the Tier IV mandate to July 1. The rules that controlled a Loudoun submission six months ago no longer do. This page is maintained continuously against DEQ guidance, SCC dockets, and PJM queue events.
Live · VA DEQ permits · JLARC reports · GA bills
Last verified
7h ago
cadence · DEQ guidance + PJM docket events
HB 507 Tier IV mandate
70d left
Jul 1, 2026
Docket corpus
LLM-maintained
updates when filings land
What is moving · as of April 22, 2026
Upcoming
May 15, 2026
HB 153 HEUF rulemaking comment window
Site-assessment rulemaking for High Energy Use Facilities (100 MW+). Sound profile within 500 ft of homes/schools; optional groundwater and agriculture impact review.
Upcoming
July 1, 2026
HB 507 Tier IV generator mandate
VA DEQ must deny any new data center generator air permit after this date unless engines are Tier IV or environmentally equivalent. Effectively reprices every pre-approved fleet design.
Upcoming
September 30, 2026
APG-578 one-year re-review
VA DEQ guidance permitting utility curtailment as 'emergency' runtime was issued Sep 30, 2025. Agency review of scope and compliance posture anticipated around anniversary.
Upcoming
January 2027
General Assembly carryover bills
46 of 61 data-center-specific bills from 2026 session carry over. Siting reform, SCC oversight, and large-load rate class each have active drafts.
Regulatory surface
Virginia is the most legislatively active data center jurisdiction in the country. DEQ guidance can change the de-rate math overnight; SCC rate class decisions can change the cost basis; county zoning can foreclose the site.
VA DEQ
Air permits, RICE NESHAP, APG-578 curtailment guidance
9 VAC 5-80 · APG-578 · Tier IV mandate (HB 507)
SCC
Utility oversight, large-load rate class, Dominion IRP
2026 SCC data-center docket (HB 153 cost-allocation)
PJM
Interconnection queue, 2024-reform cycle-based process
Cluster studies, network upgrade allocation
Loudoun / Prince William / Fairfax
Zoning, special exception, by-right eligibility
ZOAM-2024-0001 (Loudoun), ZOA Sep 10 2024 (Fairfax)
JLARC
Legislative oversight reports, cost-shift analysis
2024 Data Centers in Virginia report (cited across 2026 bills)
Live filings
Cliff ingests these end-to-end, maps parties and deadlines, and extracts structured outcomes into the approval corpus. Party-by-party details in the docket viewer.
VA HB 153
High Energy Use Facility permit
Establishes a zoning-level permit process for facilities using 100 MW or more. Requires sound-profile assessment within 500 ft of homes and schools; allows localities to require ground/surface water, agriculture, and historic impact assessments.
Signed · rulemaking pending
source →VA HB 507
Tier IV generator requirement
Mandates DEQ denial of data center generator air permits submitted after July 2026 unless the fleet is Tier IV (EPA Tier 4 final) or environmentally equivalent. No grandfathering for unpermitted sites.
Signed · effective Jul 1, 2026
source →VA DEQ APG-578
Conditional emergency definition expansion
Issued September 30, 2025. Conditionally treats utility outages noticed within 14 days as 'emergency' runtime under RICE NESHAP. The single variable swinging 0% vs 20-30% summer de-rate on a Northern Virginia PJM Non-Firm site.
Live baseline
source →Backup generation · air
APG-578 is the reason a Virginia PJM Non-Firm site can run 0% vs 20-30% summer de-rate. After July 2026, Tier IV hardware becomes the new floor for any new permit.
Model your site on the de-rate calculator.
Typical Virginia DEQ minor-source permit caps aggregate runtime at ~500 hrs/yr across all purposes. Site-specific permits vary; large data center campuses sometimes negotiate higher caps in exchange for SCR or NOx limits per engine.
Post-APG-578, Virginia DEQ conditionally treats utility outages noticed within 14 days as emergencies. Pre-memo, only acute outages qualified.
Typical: 6 mo. Title V: 12 mo. PSD: 18 mo.
Conditionally expands the state emergency definition to include planned utility outages noticed within 14 days. The single variable that swings 0% vs 20-30% summer de-rate on a Virginia PJM Non-Firm site.
Source: Hunton Nickel Report on Virginia APG-578. Last verified 2026-04-13; next refresh due 2026-07-13.
Why this page exists
The consultants and AmLaw 100 land-use practices that file Virginia data center permits are structurally silent. They cannot name clients on a NOV airshed without burning the next hyperscaler NDA, cannot publicly cite a 14-day curtailment strategy without arming opposing counsel in the next Loudoun docket, and cannot document timelines without giving competitors a free timeline estimate.
Cliff is a platform, not a retained advisor. Every cite on this page points to a filing a Fairfax or Loudoun attorney can pull on their own. Every deadline is pinned to a specific bill number or memo ID. Every rule-level claim has an “as of” date and a next-refresh timer, because Virginia has moved 15 times in the last four months and will move again before July.
Virginia diagnostic
One parcel, a concept MW, and whatever work you've already done with a consultant. We return a cited readout of your exposure across DEQ APG-578, HB 507 Tier IV, PJM interconnection, and county zoning within one week.