The utility issued a request for information on its nonresidential customers' clean energy goals weeks after Virginia released its 10-year energy plan. 

The FERC chairman did not vote on any items in the commission’s agenda Thursday, though he did vote on items at last month’s meeting despite being absent. 

"If prices keep dropping, [rooftop solar] adoption will continue and a smart utility CEO would watch the market and think about ways utilities can have some control over distributed resources."

The batteries are well established in automotive and industrial settings and have been used for utility energy storage. But they've fallen behind competing technologies, particularly lithium-ion.

Electricity in the state will grow slowly over the next two decades, but the retirement of older power plants is driving the need for cleaner resources.