Guest Column: Dominion Energy can do it a better way | Opinion | insidenova.com
By Karen Sheehan
June 29, 2025
Because of overwhelming demands for power from unconstrained data center development across Northern Virginia, PJM (our regional energy transmission organization) has approved Dominion Energy adding a third 500-kilovolt line and another 230-kilovolt line to the existing Morrisville-Wishing Star corridor through Fauquier and Prince William counties and into Loudoun County.
Adding these new lines will expand the existing right of way up to 100 feet – taking up to 210 feet of new right of way in some areas. Hundreds and hundreds of additional towers (up to 189 feet tall) will be erected for more transmission lines.
Either option will slice through our neighborhoods, taking private property next to homes and through parks, wetlands and conservation areas, costing close to a billion dollars. This expansion of right of way is opposed by communities along the 36.5-mile route. And there is another way.
Dominion can stay within the existing right of way, use the current towers, finish sooner, double the power capacity and spend less – with advanced composite reconductoring.
Dominion has traditionally used steel-reinforced core aluminum conductor transmission lines (ACSR), invented in the 1900s. The utility rebuilt 6.7 miles in Loudoun County using 1970s steel-reinforced core conductors (ACSS), according to a 2024 study requested by Del. David Reid, D-Ashburn.
The early 2000s brought advanced conductors, which use a smaller and lighter composite core without compromising structural strength. Replacing old lines on existing towers with advanced composite conductors would carry up to twice the electric current of the steel core lines, face no opposition or permitting requirements and require no new right of way. These composite reconductor projects are completed sooner and less expensively than running new lines.
When asked, Dominion engineers pushed back against advanced composite conductors for the Morrisville-Wishing Star project, claiming they are not proven.
Advanced composite conductors are proven. More than 90,000 miles of composite conductors have been implemented worldwide since 2009. ACCC (aluminum conductor composite core) has the greatest worldwide deployment, with more than 81,000 miles installed in 61 countries – including American Electric Power deploying 240 miles of such lines with ACCC in Texas in 2016. Risks of permitting delays associated with right-of-way acquisition were seen as a serious deterrent to that time-sensitive project, which was completed in three years – ahead of schedule – and millions of dollars under budget.
Advanced composite conductors can meet a majority of near-term transmission needs through leveraging existing right of way, according to a recent study. The technology could save consumers $85 billion, quadruple current rates of transmission capacity expansion and hit 90% clean energy by 2035, according to Forbes.
The U.S. Department of Energy identified state regulators as critical for moving industry past “early adopter” reluctance with these solutions. Virginia needs to have legislation in place requiring our grid to be improved with advanced composite conductors.
All the facts can be found on the Advanced Composite Reconductoring page on the Coalition to Protect Prince William County website (www.protectpwc.org).
Bottom line: The routes we already have could power twice as much, if replaced with ACCC.
It is irresponsible for Dominion not to incorporate advanced ACCC reconductoring into any plan for a Morrisville-Wishing Star project. Dominion has no excuse for not embracing this common-sense, cost-effective and non-intrusive solution to the challenge it must address because of the continuing tsunami of data centers.
Dominion Energy must stop pillaging our lands, our homes and our pocketbooks for more rights of way and more transmission lines. The utility can improve the quality of service to all customers.
If doubling the power capacity of the Morrisville-Wishing Star corridor with advanced composite reconductoring isn’t enough, how much more capacity is needed for the data center demands driving this project?
Karen Sheehan is a Haymarket resident and director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County.