Dear Coalition Friends and Supporters,
As we have previously shared, the Coalition to Protect Prince William County leadership has been participating in Dominion Energy’s Prince William Energy Engagement Meetings (PWEEG) since June of 2023. Our purpose is to listen, observe, and ask questions about EVERY infrastructure project Dominion Energy is proposing that will impact people’s property and pocketbooks.
In the June 18th PWEEG meeting several projects were discussed. We are ONLY addressing one of them in this email — the Vint Hill GIS (Gas Insulated Substation). The Vint Hill project is not a new substation, per se. It will replace the smaller substation that is there now.
(Put this on your calendar: Attend the July 10 Dominion Energy “Open House” on this expansion – see details below)
From our collective experience, this is the first GIS substation we have seen proposed in Prince William County. When the Dominion representative giving the presentation to the group was asked: “Can you give more information on what a Modern Gas Insulated Substation is,” the reply was this: “I would love to, but want to take that offline as I am not an engineer. I want to be accurate. I know enough to know it is for sizing purposes.”
So that was it. The person literally tasked with presenting had almost NO understanding of this new type of substation. And no other Dominion employee at the meeting could answer!
We are providing the best information we have to prepare you for their July 10th “check the box” meeting. We believe OUR supervisors need to be asking questions about safety and possible impacts, if any, of this substation.
On the picture from the June 18 meeting, Dominion Energy states “Project is necessary to meet growing energy demands…” Instead, we think Dominion’s presentation should say “Project is necessary to meet growing DATA CENTER energy demands…”
We need to reinforce this “growing energy demand” Dominion Energy loves to regurgitate ad nauseum, is ONLY due to unconstrained data center development because of continued approval of data centers by Local Governments, including our own Board. The public voting records clearly identify those local supervisors who are most closely linked to consistent and “reliable” YES votes for Data Centers — in spite of all the growing evidence that should raise grave concerns about Data Center proliferation and their impacts.
During a recent FERC panel discussion led by Mark Christie, FERC Chair, there was no doubt that the crisis we are caught up in is driven by Data Center load demand. And no one articulates it more succinctly than Dr. John Bowring (President of Monitoring Analytics). Since 1999, Dr. Bowring has been the Independent Market Monitor for PJM, responsible for all market monitoring activities of PJM Interconnection.
Portions of his remarks are below.
Meeting the Challenge of Resource Adequacy in RTOs/ISOs | Day 1 of 2 Technical Conference watch from 3:40:00 – 3:43-13
“…The source of increased demand growth is data centers. PERIOD. Data Centers are imposing billions of dollars on everyone else. Does it make sense to drive up the cost on all customers to serve Data Centers? They could overwhelm the grid if they chose to. The potential for data center load is massive……..They should bring their own generation………Pretending it’s just regular supply and demand is missing a key source and that is the problem.”
Because Dominion Energy chose to present the Vint Hill Gas Insulated Substation with no expert to answer questions, we are providing a link EVERYONE should read to get educated BEFORE you attend the July 10th meeting.
E03-043 – An Introduction to Gas Insulated Electrical Substations – US.pdf
Our questions are simple:
- How many GIS does Dominion Energy currently have operating in its Virginia territory?
- What is the cost delta between the AIS (Air Insulated Substation) and GIS?
- WHO is covering the delta?
- Why now? Why build a GIS?
- What are the safety drawbacks of GIS?
Please do your own research. Come prepared with your own questions.
Below is the best picture we could find of a 500kV GIS substation:
Here is the information from Dominion indicating a meeting on the topic:
Thursday, July 10
6 – 8 PM
Marsteller Middle School
14000 Sudley Manor Dr., Bristow
*********************
Just a few of the recently published articles we thought you would find interesting:
Secrets, Servers, and Strain: The hidden toll of America’s data center boom
“The system itself has already seen troubling results from the challenges posed by data centers. An April presentation made by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to federal regulators highlighted two major incidents of concern in Virginia.”
“One of those incidents from last summer was considered a “near miss” involving 60 data centers that simultaneously dropped offline. As a result, a huge amount of electricity already on the grid had nowhere to go. Experts like Robb compared it to having a large nuclear power plant come online immediately and unexpectedly, creating a massive energy imbalance that could have led to blackouts.”
“The close calls are very concerning. If they come off the grid in ways that we don’t understand, can’t predict, and can’t manage, they can introduce oscillations in the grid instability, which can start to impact people’s ability to use power in their homes,” Robb said. “That’s one of the reasons we want to make sure that they’re well understood, well modeled, and well controlled when they come onto the grid.”
Data Centers Added $9.4 Billion in Costs on Biggest US Grid – Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) — The rapid development of data centers connected to the largest US electric grid raised costs by $9.4 billion, an expense that consumers from Illinois to Washington, D.C., will see reflected in their utility bills starting this month.
Tax breaks for tech giants’ data centers mean less income for states
“There was a giant transfer of wealth from taxpayers to shareholders,” LeRoy told CNBC. “Some states, like Virginia, are headed toward billion-dollar annual losses.”
“Northern Virginia, which is known as the world’s data center capital, has examined the economic impact of the data center sales tax exemptions. A 2024 study by the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee, or JLARC, showed that, on average, the state generated 48 cents in new state revenue for every dollar it did not collect in sales tax between fiscal years 2014 and 2023. Most of this revenue came from personal and corporate income taxes as well as from sales tax on nonexempt purchases, JLARC said.”
What Lessons Can Atlanta Learn From ‘Data Center Alley’?
“An Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter visited Northern Virginia in April to get a glimpse of the changes that could be on the horizon. As these Virginia communities grapple with both the perceived positives and negatives of data center development, advocates and critics offered the same advice: Plan ahead.”
“…Residents like Schlossberg warned of the unintended consequences of letting data centers define your community.”
“Virginia is a beautiful state with a lot of natural and historic resources, and we are going to ruin that,” she said. “As far as the eye can see, there’s data centers, diesel generators, transmission lines and substations.”
*****************************
Your donation helps us with our on-going activities.