Dominion Virginia Power will seek a second transmission line ahead of schedule for the second fastest growing county in the nation.
"There's a growing demand for electricity because of the increase in growth in Loudoun County," said Le-ha Anderson, manager of media and community relations for Dominion Virginia Power in Fairfax.
Dominion Virginia Power awaits a response from the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) on the first phase of the two-phase transmission line project, recommended for approval by the SCC hearing examiner. The company will begin the public input process on the second phase, planned for 2007-08, to provide an additional transmission or power line in eastern Loudoun in 2005, accelerating the project by two to three years. The acceleration is expected to accommodate new data centers and other large developments being built in eastern Loudoun. Existing power lines along the W&OD Trail have a limited capacity and are expected to reach capacity by mid-2005.
"We have an abundance of electricity, but the issue is bringing electricity to the growth area," Anderson said.
The first phase of the project, if approved, will provide two 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines in eastern Loudoun, one 1.6 miles and the second two miles to serve the residences, businesses and data centers located north and south of the W&OD Trail. The county currently has three 500 kV transmission lines, seven 230 kV lines and two 115 kV lines.
VIRGINIA DOMINION POWER will consider three routes for the power line in the project's second phase. The power line, a 230-kilovolt overhead line, will extend four to seven miles from an existing north-south 230/500 kV corridor located west of Goose Creek to either the proposed Beco Substation, approved by the Board of Supervisors on May 6, or the Greenway Substation. The power line will take a west-to-east route to serve development along the Route 28 corridor and to accommodate requests from developers wanting to add to the electrical load, including Howard Hughes Medical Research Center, CyberFortress, Inc. and Broad Street Equities. The study area is defined by Route 7 to the north, Route 28 to the east, Old Ox Road and Broad Run to the south and the company's existing power line to the west of Goose Creek.
"The need for additional energy and reliability in this area was accelerated by six years because of the development of these new economy data centers," said Edgar Roach, Jr., chief executive officer of Dominion Virginia Power, according to a press release from the company.
The data centers contracted for 400 percent more electricity last year than Dominion Virginia Power projected, while requiring about 10 times more electricity than an average office building, Roach said. At the same time, the peak electrical load increased countywide by 14 percent each year since 1999, according to Dominion Virginia Power. The load increased in 1999 from 325 Mega Voltage Ampere (MVA), a measurement used by electric companies to define load, to 380 MVA in 2000 and to 420 MVA in 2001.
"The data center business seems to have flattened out, but we have a lot of potential capacity we built for," said Supervisor Chuck Harris (D-Broad Run). "When the telecom industry picks up again, there will be demand for the unused space."
THE THREE ROUTES considered for the second phase power line include:
• Alternative 1 along route 7, which will extend from the existing Pleasant View Substation north to Route 7, then east to an existing sewer easement and to the proposed Beco Substation.
• Alternative 2 along the Dulles Greenway, which will travel from the Pleasant View Substation south to the Greenway and turn northeast into the Greenway Substation.
• Alternative 3, which will start from a new substation to be built south of the Broadlands, then head east along one of several corridors, across the Greenway and into the Greenway Substation. The corridors include a gas pipeline, a sewer line, Route 772 or Route 606.
County staff recommended the third alternative at the May 13 Land Use Committee meeting.
"It impacts the fewest residential areas in terms of going by existing or planned areas," Harris said. "There's always going to be some contention with utility power routing like this. The challenge is to find the route that impacts the fewest residents, schools, businesses and environmental considerations."
Some of the proposed corridors in the third alternative present problems, Harris said. Route 606 is expected to be expanded to six lanes, requiring right-of-ways to be obtained; the pipeline route extends through areas planned for residential development; and the sewer line travels through the Broad Run flood plain that would result in river and stream corridor disturbance, he said.
THE SECOND PHASE of the project will be presented at two public workshops, scheduled Wednesday from 4-8 p.m. at Seldens Landing Elementary School in Leesburg and Thursday at the same time at the Arcola Community Center.
The workshops will include information about the project's engineering design, maps of the alternative routes and aerial photographs.
Representatives from Dominion Virginia Power are scheduled to meet with the Land Use Committee at 6 p.m. on July 8 and the Board of Supervisors at 11 a.m. on July 22.
After receiving the input, Dominion Virginia Power plans to submit an application to the SCC for approval to construct the power line. The commission will determine the needs for the line, while considering possible routes and the environmental impacts of the routes. The SCC will begin a formal process including public hearings to determine the power line's final location.
Dominion Virginia Power expects to file the application in late summer or early fall and the hearings to be held in 2003.