A proposal to build a new electric transmission line between Campbell and Culpeper counties has prompted elected officials in both Fluvanna and Louisa to take steps to oppose its construction, including setting aside money for a potential legal battle.
Now the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has taken a step to allow residents along the route of an existing power line an additional opportunity to object to its expansion.
“Dominion is proposing to the State Corporation Commission to rebuild to double and triple the sizes of the current power lines that go through Hollymead, the Forest Lakes area, through Pantops, all the way up to Gordonsville, through Keswick,” said Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley at the June 15 Board meeting.
According to a fact sheet for the project published in February, an existing 20-mile line between Charlottesville and Gordonsville would be rebuilt from a 230-kilovolt, to add a second circuit that would double capacity to meet additional demand.
“Your area, as well as other communities throughout Virginia, is experiencing growing energy needs,” reads the fact sheet. “This updated proposal utilizes the existing right of way as much as possible and uses advanced conductors on the new structures.”
However, the new towers will have an average height of 116 feet, much taller than the current average height of 56 feet. Dominion filed its proposal with the SCC on April 23, which gave localities and adjacent landowners until Monday to ask for a public hearing on the matter. Otherwise state regulators will just accept written comments by July 8.
According to a timetable on the website of the Pantops Coalition, Dominion wants an answer from the SCC by January 31.
LaPisto-Kirtley introduced a resolution to request a hearing, and for Albemarle County to participate in the case. A current search of the docket indicates many comments to date, with some asking Dominion to place the line underground instead.
One group of wealthy landowners has sought to block the entire proceedings. On June 2, a coalition called Historic Keswick Properties filed a motion arguing that Dominion does not have the right to conduct the rebuild.
“Dominion’s Project … is not permitted within the scope of Dominion’s existing transmission line easements on the Historic Keswick Properties,” reads the complaint.
That complaint has been echoed by the Piedmont Environmental Council, a Warrenton-based nonprofit that is organizing opposition to data centers across the region. It filed a notice of participation on May 29.
“PEC has a unique interest in this case among environmental and consumer advocates in that the proliferation of data centers—and the associated transmission expansion projects—in Dominion’s northern Virginia service territory has resulted in particular adverse impacts to natural and historic resources in the Virginia Piedmont region,” reads that notice.
As of Monday, the SCC had not received any correspondence from Albemarle County.
