As predicted more than two years ago! Coal is FUELING the Data Center Proliferation.
The Coalition to Protect PWC had been warning as early as December of 2022 that out-of-control data center proliferation was consuming so much power that the only alternative immediately available to meet the industry’s insatiable appetite would be coal.
“…During each of the public hearings, Coalition to Protect Prince William County Executive Director Elena Schlossberg took the mic to explain her support for the rural crescent……Afterward, Schlossberg delivered a Santa bag “full of coal” before the dais, saying the ongoing data center sprawl is too big to rely on anything other than “dirty coal.”
FAST FORWARD TWO YEARS – IT’S NOW NATIONAL HEADLINE NEWS!
Internet data centers are fueling drive to old power source: Coal – Washington Post
“CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — A helicopter hovers over the Gee family farm, the noisy rattle echoing inside their home in this rural part of West Virginia. It’s holding surveyors who are eyeing space for yet another power line next to the property — a line that will take electricity generated from coal plants in the state to address a drain on power driven by the world’s internet hub in Northern Virginia 35 miles away.”
“There, massive data centers with computers processing nearly 70 percent of global digital traffic are gobbling up electricity at a rate officials overseeing the power grid say is unsustainable unless two things happen: Several hundred miles of new transmission lines must be built, slicing through neighborhoods and farms in Virginia and three neighboring states. And antiquated coal-powered electricity plants that had been scheduled to go offline will need to keep running to fuel the increasing need for more power, undermining clean energy goals…”
This chart from the Washington Post article says it all, including the descriptive title: “STRATOSPHERIC“
The price tag for just this ONE transmission expansion project is over 5 BILLION dollars. You read that correctly — Not MILLIONS, it’s in the BILLIONS. And this is only the first of many transmission expansion projects to come, all driven by data center expansions.
“We should not be subsidizing this industry for another minute, let alone another year,” Julie Bolthouse, director of land use at the Piedmont Environmental Council, chided a Senate committee that voted in February to table a bill that would force data center companies to pay more for new transmission lines.
What people in Prince William County, AND the region, need to understand is that the one West Virginia to Loudoun County “extension cord” highlighted in this article is only the FIRST STEP to meet the power needs for Data Center Alley in Loudoun County. This massive dirty coal extension cord does NOT include the power calculations for the next even BIGGER data center alley coming in Prince William County.
Residents need to get involved throughout the Commonwealth. We need to act locally, regionally, AND statewide.
How does this initiative to bring power to Data Center Alley affect us directly in PWC? That massive North-South transmission line that goes through Vint Hill and Pageland Lane exists today – this PJM expansion project is calling it the Morrisville to Wishing Star transmission expansion. Dominion plans to tear down the existing lattice-structure towers in the corridor all the way from the Morrisville substation in Fauquier County, through Prince William County, to a new Wishing Star substation in Loudoun County (36.5 miles), and replace those towers with three new monopole towers, each 180′ tall – all to add one more 500kV transmission line to the corridor. This expansion is not for any of the data center proliferation in Prince William County – it’s for Loudoun County’s Data Center Alley.
What can you do in Prince William County? You can attend Dominion Energy’s upcoming virtual community meeting on Tuesday, April 30 from noon to 1 PM. An in-person community meeting will be held in Prince William County on May 16 – details TBD.
Let’s remember who pays for the bulk of this new upgraded transmission infrastructure and who pays for the purchasing of power from outside the Dominion zone? Yep, you got it — YOU DO. Also note: The north-south transmission corridor was upgraded less than fifteen years ago. Normally, per Dominion Energy, replacements don’t have to be made before 25 years.
The only reasonable reaction to this kind of grid overload, driven primarily by one industry, is to demand that THEY figure out how they THEMSELVES are going to meet THEIR OWN corporate business model.
It is not our responsibility as a community to bear the brunt of ALL the impacts THEY are causing. Remember, these lines, whether they are expanded easements or altogether new transmission corridors: they will take private property, they will impact our natural and cultural resources, and they will force all residents to cover the cost.
We say ENOUGH.
This aspect of the 21st century industrial era is taking too much.
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