Lansdowne residents oppose proposed Route 7 transmission lines | News | loudountimes.com
In a heated meeting between Dominion Energy representatives and Lansdowne residents about proposed overhead transmission lines along Route 7, residents voiced concerns about how the lines will impact their property values, monthly energy bills and the aesthetics of the area. Many urged Dominion to “bury the lines” or ask data centers to foot the bill.
The meeting, held Sept. 27 in the clubhouse auditorium at Lansdowne Woods of Virginia, was set to begin at 3 p.m., but representatives from Dominion refused to conduct the meeting with a Times-Mirror reporter present. The group of Lansdowne residents invited the Times-Mirror to the meeting and allowed a reporter through the front gate of the community.
Kathleen Leonard, an external affairs representative for Dominion, told the Times-Mirror at the meeting that she was unaware a reporter would be present and that it was “corporate policy” to have their media relations representative there. Rob Richardson, Dominion’s electric transmission communications consultant, gave a presentation and fielded questions at the meeting.
Jason Williams, Dominion’s vice president of corporate communications, reached out to the Times-Mirror Oct. 5 and apologized for how the Dominion representatives handled the incident.
“Although the majority of our meetings are public we sometimes are asked to attend private neighborhood meetings,” he said in an email to the Times-Mirror. “The material we cover is usually the same, but it creates a more private venue for those in the community to voice questions. Many times they may have questions specific to their home, business, or neighborhood. In those meetings we respect the request of our customers for privacy. In this case it seems members of the HOA had invited [Times-Mirror Reporter Jess] Kirby to attend, but our project team at the meeting was not aware.”
Williams continued, “I want to be clear my expectation and the policy we have in place is if a representative of the media attends a private neighborhood meeting we were invited to, it is up to the organizer to determine if they wish to invite the media, not us. If the entity that requested the private meeting wants the media to be present we will move forward with the meeting. Nothing changes on our end, the meeting is only private at the request of the organizer. I realize this is not how this meeting was handled, but it is the outlier to our expectations.”
Lansdowne residents provided a recording of the meeting to the Times-Mirror.
The proposed transmission lines are part of several “reliability projects” intended to build more capacity into the electric grid to meet the demand of data centers in eastern Loudoun County, according to previous statements from Dominion. In April, the SCC approved a new three-mile-long transmission line west of Dulles International Airport between Arcola and Brambleton.
Dominion Energy revealed last year that it had failed to upgrade its electric transmission infrastructure quickly enough to keep up with future demand for power data centers in eastern Loudoun County, the Times-Mirror previously reported.
Richardson said the Route 7 transmission line project is in response to an “energy constraint issue” Dominion currently faces, largely because of the rapid increase in data centers in Loudoun County and a lack of infrastructure to provide power to them. In 2000, there were six substations in the entire county, today there are 65 just in Ashburn, and by the end of 2027, there will be 70, he said.
Richardson added that, from 2020 to 2027, Northern Virginia’s data center loads will have increased from 2,518 to 7,920 megawatts — an increase of 214%.
To meet its energy needs, Richardson said, Dominion needs to complete the Route 7 project by the end of 2027.
Some residents questioned how Dominion ended up in this situation.
“Why did you not consult or anticipate this method of delivery of so much power when all these [data centers] went up?” Carmen Ross asked. “… I think that because you’ve all been remiss — not just you, everybody was remiss — let everybody pay for it, not us.”
Richardson responded by saying that the planning process for data centers is “a long process that I don’t fully understand.” He later said that “trying to pin [all the data centers] down to get a forecast of what the load is going to be, so you know you need a new transmission line and a new substation, is not exact science.”
“You’re right to point the finger,” Richardson continued. “I wouldn’t necessarily point it at us, but we are here to do everything we can to try and solve it.”
Several residents said that they didn’t want to have to look at the power lines across from their homes and asked about alternative locations where the transmission lines could be placed.
Richardson said Dominion had considered other locations. However, he said, building the lines along the Washington and Old Dominion Trail would require more than 70 homes to be condemned, and building them along the Dulles Greenway would require over 30 homes to be condemned.
“We weren’t willing to tell 30 people that we are going to work to condemn your homes because we need a new power line,” he said.
Richardson said the Route 7 corridor is the best option because, although there is planned commercial development there, no homes would be in the transmission line’s right-of-way. “We value existing homes, existing property, existing development, over proposed,” he said.
Several residents also urged Dominion to consider burying all or part of the transmission lines. Richardson said, however, that underground transmission lines of such size have “never been done before,” would have “significant environmental impacts” and would increase the estimated cost from $218 million to $1.03 billion. Underground transmission lines would also take four to six years to build, compared to 18 months for overhead lines.
Maryann Mueller, a Lansdowne Woods resident and Lansdowne Conservancy Task Force representative, said that underground power lines of this size had, in fact, been built before. “Germany just built a 310-mile-long, 500 kilovolt line from Norway to Sweden,” she said, referring to the NordLink project, which consists of overhead and underground lines and is largely submerged in the North Sea.
Another resident urged Dominion to bring the cost of building the transmission lines underground to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.
“The Board of Supervisors will work with a committee, will work with Dominion, will work with the State Corporation Commission, and that money will be found, and the lines will be buried,” he said.
Residents also asked how the transmission lines would impact property values.
“The perception that power lines are going to impact your property values is not a reality,” Richardson said. According to “real estate experts” that Dominion consulted, Richardson said, homeowners “may experience [a] 4, 5, 6% impact.”
Mueller disagreed. “Relative to the houses that don’t have those lines, you can’t tell me that there’s not a change in price. There is,” she said.
A few residents also cited a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch article saying that some data centers had signed agreements to pay Dominion for the construction of power lines and substations. They questioned why data centers couldn’t be responsible for paying for the Aspen to Golden transmission lines or for the extra cost of burying the lines.
In response, Richardson said, “the regulatory model that we have doesn’t allow” Dominion to consult with data centers about paying for the power lines.
Mueller responded, “Your vice president of strategic affairs testified that data centers are, in fact, now paying you for substations and also for lines and research and development. So I get that there is a ‘regulatory model’ that’s followed, but your vice president is saying that there are exceptions.”
Richardson said that Dominion is “the wrong organization to talk about” making the data centers pay for it. He urged residents to contact their supervisors and representatives instead.
Lansdowne residents have voiced their opposition to the transmission lines at several recent Board of Supervisors meetings. A petition opposing the transmission lines currently has 2,044 signatures.
As both parties were growing visibly frustrated, Richardson said, “Our job isn’t to make you love what we do. I think our job, I hope, is to help you understand the circumstances surrounding all the things we’re doing. … Admittedly, we made some tough choices here when we looked at the different constraints, but Route 7 is where we ended up.”
Another resident said she felt that Dominion’s decision was already final. “I think you have already made your decision,” she said. “… We should’ve been involved at the very beginning if you were really interested in hearing what we had to say.”
