Dominion and AEP plan electrical superhighway -- high voltage power lines across seven counties

Two energy giants, Dominion and AEP, are planning to build a high voltage transmission line between substations near Lynchburg and Culpeper. At the Piedmont Environmental Council, analyst Mike Barber says it will have a huge impact on natural resources stretching 115 miles.

"It’s going to covert somewhere north of 2,700 acres of land to utility right-of-way, and all of that is land that’s currently forested or farmed— natural open space or someone’s backyard," he explains. "The structures that Valley Link has proposed are anywhere from 135 to 160 feet tall, so that’s roughly a 12-story building."

Valley Link is expected to file for permission from the State Corporation Commission this summer, and could win approval one year later, but environmentalists like Barber hope the public and politicians will step up to stop overdevelopment of the state.

"Dominion is pitching this as sort of an electric superhighway, where they’ll be able to add substations and other high-voltage lines off of it in the future to connect to other parts of the grid, and everywhere along the grid where there is space for a new data center and transmission line capacity to get that data center power, that’s an opportunity for a developer."

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