Barely five years after dealing with citizen uproar over multiple route possibilities cutting through communities for the Haymarket Transmission line, Dominion Energy is at it again.
Dominion submitted the Daves Store Transmission line route to the SCC on Feb. 9, 2024 — completely ignoring citizen input.
If it feels like ground hog day, it is. The only difference is that in this go-round the Ann Wheeler-majority-Board of Supervisors was warned in advance, early on, that if they approved the millions of sq ft of Data Center development outside the overlay at the intersection of Catharpin and 55, it would trigger a new transmission line and multiple substations. Board of County Supervisors Meeting (granicus.com) timestamp starting at 7:30:00.
The Coalition to Protect PWC even SHOWED the Board, during that public hearing for these data center projects on June 15 of 2021, the map of the anticipated transmission line route that Dominion Energy had provided to the Coalition even earlier on a zoom call – in February of 2021!
“The Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved a rezoning and special use permit for a one million square foot data center in Haymarket.”
“The company behind Village Place Technology Park has hidden its identity, operating through shell company CTP-I LLC.”
(It turns out to be Amazon Web Services!)
“But locals are concerned that the new data center development – as well as two other proposed campuses – could necessitate huge overhead transmission lines that cut through minority communities.”
“Dominion Energy’s manager of electric transmission communications, Greg Mathe, told the planning office that it did not want to build the overhead lines, and thinks that it can meet most of the growing demand by expanding existing infrastructure.”
At the ONLY public meeting held, in the Brentsville district, for the Daves Store Transmission Line this past January 2024, Dominion was repeatedly asked to provide more information for deep bore drilling to underground the line to minimize impacts on the community. Dominion didn’t even hold a public meeting in the Gainesville district for this project. The Public was ignored.
Below is a screen shot from the 2021 zoom meeting with Dominion Energy. The star is over the (Daves Store) transmission line route and the green dots identify the data center development and substations on either side of route 55/Catharpin Rd.
The map below depicts the finalized route Dominion submitted to the SCC on Feb. 9, 2024. The transmission line will begin in the Brentsille district at the Atlantic Substation, traverses Wellington Road and around the Gateway commercial district, crosses OVER the Linton Hall Road overpass on Route 29, and terminates at a new substation in the Gainesville district – which has NOT yet been approved by our Board of Supervisors.
Below are pictures of the new Data Centers to be powered by the Daves Store transmission line. This power is not being provided for the greater good; there is no system reliability issue being served.
This is an extension cord for Data Centers. This transmission line’s only purpose is to serve its Data Center masters and to fill the infrastructure coffers of Dominion Energy. Together, these two data center projects will require almost one gigawatt of power, enough for 250,000 homes.
Amazon Web Services 55/Catharpin
NTT 55/Catharpin – across the street
ALL of us are paying for THEIR extension cord, for their substations, and for their power running to those Data Centers. The wealthiest corporations in the world are freeloading their power infrastructure needs off every single rate payer in Virginia.
Now because of the greed of Data Centers AND the irresponsible approval of these projects by Ann Wheeler’s Board AND the dismissal by Dominion Energy of citizens’ concerns, we will once again be dealing with detrimental impacts to our community AND bearing the cost of what would otherwise be an UNNEEDED transmission line.
Our public utility is being misused by the Data Center industry and our State elected leaders have chosen to allow this kind of abuse of Virginia’s residents.
If you built your house on a mountain, and did not have access to power, you would be required to pay for your own power distribution line. The only difference here is scale – and the fact that Data Centers are special-cased in Virginia.
The State Corporate Commission agreed with the Coalition’s position that the “customer” requiring the transmission should be made to pay, and the line should be the least intrusive possible. You can read from the 2016 post hearing brief of the SCC Legal Staff here SCC-Staff-Legal-Brief-080516.pdf (protectpwc.org)
page 9
“Thus, in viewing these “line extensions” to large contingent loads, the Commission may wish to require the customer requiring such project to put some of its own skin into the game. Otherwise, the general public, already burdened by the environmental and aesthetic impacts of otherwise unneeded transmission projects, is not also burdened with 100% of the otherwise unnecessary costs.”
“Line Extension Policy”
“One way to ensure that prospective developers of large block loads who request service that can only be provided through development and construction of new transmission products bear the costs of such construction would be the application of DVP’s Line Extension policy…….”
ENOUGH is ENOUGH! Dominion Energy and your Board of Supervisors need to hear directly from YOU on this issue!
Steve Precker – Dominion Energy:
stephen.s.precker@dominionenergy.com
Greg Mathe – Dominion Energy:
Gregory.E.Mathe@dominionenergy.com
PWC Board of County Supervisors:
chair@pwcgov.org tgordy@pwcgov.org yvega@pwcgov.org abailey@pwcgov.org vsangry@pwcgov.org kboddye@pwcgov.org mfranklin@pwcgov.org bweir@pwcgov.org djefferson@pwcgov.org bocs@pwcgov.org