When it comes to pay for utility CEOs, Virginia’s big power companies make the top ten. A watchdog group called the Energy Policy Institute reviewed proxy statements and found Bill Fehrman at AEP – the parent-company for Appalachian Power – was number one with potential salary, bonuses and stock options worth more than $36 million.
Coming in at number ten on the list of top utility earners was the CEO of Dominion Energy, Bob Blue. He could take home compensation valued at $16 million. Institute researcher Shelby Green also noted some generous perks.
“Dominion Energy has an allowance of up to about $10,000 a year for health club memberships and it also allows the CEO to use the company’s private jet for personal travel, and it also encourages the CEO to invite his family and guests. Those costs are then passed on to Virginia customers.”
The institute’s report concludes it would take an average worker in Virginia more than 200 years to earn as much as Dominion’s CEO at a time when thousands of customers are unable to pay their electric bills.
“Virginia utilities disconnected electricity service almost 500,000 times in 2024.”
The institute reports both men were above the national average for CEO compensation— $12.3 million in 2025— and it notes that in less than a decade, pay to electric and gas companies’ top executives rose 47%, outpacing inflation and average wage growth.
We invited AEP and Dominion to talk about this subject. They opted, instead, to submit written responses to our questions. AEP said the compensation plan for its CEO was in line with the long-term interests of customers and shareholders while helping to ensure leadership continuity.
“CEO talent is difficult to find. It is a very competitive market,” says
Felipe Cabazon, a professor of finance at Virginia Tech. He says the world of regulated utilities is unique. CEOs must not only keep shareholders and customers happy. They have to ensure politicians and regulators support their requests for rate hikes and plans to expand.
“It’s a difficult job to do— a special personality that you need. And that is expensive.”
He notes executive compensation is usually pegged to achievement of certain goals. At Dominion, that means a good safety record, customer satisfaction, reliability and earnings per share. At AEP, the chief executive is paid based on the company’s financial performance over a five-year period, favorable rulings by regulators, safety and reliability.
But Cabazon says other factors can influence a company’s success – things over which the CEO has no control. Right now, for example, artificial intelligence has greatly increased the need and boosted prices for energy.
“A huge increase in the demand for energy in the last 2 to 3 years. This is what some people call being compensated for luck.”
It’s important, he adds, that boards of directors not get too cozy with CEOs.
"We need to make sure that the board of directors are independent from the CEO – that they can make the right decision when choosing the CEO and when they’re defining compensation.”
The Energy Policy Institute points to about 2,000 towns and cities supplied with power by not-for-profit or community-owned companies— Salem, Radford, Harrisonburg and Danville for example. Their managers are often paid less, but the American Public Power Association warns that firms paying too little risk losing talented leaders to for-profit utilities or other industries.
