$1 billion, 115-mile electric transmission line project planned for parts of Central Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A roughly $1 billion electric transmission line project could soon cover about 115 miles of land in Central Virginia, stretching from Campbell County to Culpeper County.

Valley Link, a joint venture between Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission, LLC, and Transource Energy, LLC, is planning the Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Line Project, at 765 kilovolts, the highest-capacity power lines in the state and the nation.

“What we’re trying to do with this project is really bring a new backbone, a new interstate of power through the heart of our system,” said Adam Maguire, Dominion’s Strategic Project Advisor within the Electric Transmission Team.

These lines would be anywhere from 135 to 165 feet tall, and, at all points throughout the approximately 115-mile route, would need to clear about 200 feet of land. There are currently two different proposed routes: the route with the most reach would run through Campbell County, Appamattox County, Buckingham County, Goochland County, Fluvanna County, Louisa County, Spotslyvania County, Orange County, and Culpeper County.

Maguire says this project would mark an extension of the existing lines in Ohio and West Virginia into Central and Northern Virginia, where Dominion is seeing its highest demand.

“What that’ll do is not just deliver power up to Northern Virginia, where the load growth currently is, but it will give us an interstate that we can essentially put exits on... to feed demand as it comes to Central Virginia and even Southside Virginia,” Maguire said. “So, it gives us a very flexible resource.”

According to the utility, the Commonwealth is currently experiencing the greatest increase in energy demand since World War II, amid an ongoing data center boom across the state. Virginia is home to more data centers than any other place in the world, and while Dominion says there are a number of other sources of demand for energy - a rising population, increasing electrification - the growth the Commonwealth has seen from these warehouses is unprecedented.

“You can’t ignore that data centers are a new and emerging industry that we historically are not used to,” said Craig Carper, a spokesperson for Dominion Energy. “Elephant in the room, they’re there, and we have to meet the demand to address it.”