Dominion unveils route changes for Valley Link Transmission line

One of the proposed routes of the controversial Valley Link Transmission line, which will stretch 765 kilovolt lines 115-miles across Virginia from Lynchburg to Culpeper, has been altered by developers, as Dominion Energy, Transource and FirstEnergy narrow down which path they’d prefer to present to the State Corporation Commission.

Dominion has been meeting with communities in the nine counties the line could traverse: Campbell, Appomattox, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Louisa, Orange, Goochland, Spotsylvania, and Culpeper. Members of these communities confirmed that the utility shared the updated route options with them in recent days. 

Route 2’s changes are mainly centered in Buckingham and Louisa, and there are alterations near the Joshua and Yeat substations at the beginning and end of the line.

“Valley Link has developed a potential variation to Route 2 in Louisa County that avoids crossing land owned by the Louisa County Board of Supervisors just west of the Louisa County Schools Campus,” said Craig Carper, a Dominion spokesman. 

The updated route will parallel an existing transmission line through the county’s technology overlay district and avoids “areas of the district proposed for rezoning,” he added.

Carper emphasized that the routes that are displayed on the official Valley Link website are not complete and that when routing and variations are finalized, “Valley Link will host a virtual meeting with the community to explain route details and ways to remain engaged.”

The Louisa board has adamantly opposed the transmission line that is slated to bring 6.6 gigawatts of energy from the Ohio Valley into Northern Virginia where power demands are greatest, in part due to the large concentration of data centers in the region. 

The board filed a resolution against the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission back in March. Now, even with the altered route option, county leaders will only be satisfied if developers “abandoned the project,” Louisa Board of Supervisors Chairman Duane Adams said.

Adams explained that the county has put aside $250,000 for legal fees to fight the project at the SCC and “in court if we have to”. 

“I just think Dominion’s not listening at all to the counties and the citizens across these nine counties,” Adams said.
”There is no good path for Valley Link, and there’s no positive for Louisa County.”

If the power needs are greatest in Northern Virginia, Adams said, then the energy generation projects should be built there rather than constructing the transmission line to cut through thousands of acres in Central Virginia.

Residents who live near the potential routes or whose property would be bisected by the power line have also pushed back against Valley Link. Some landowners, concerned about the health impacts of living in close proximity to the line, are considering leaving.

Carper said that the routes will be finalized “this fall,” ahead of the project’s official filing with the SCC. 

PJM, the regional grid operator for most of the East Coast, identified the Valley Link Transmission line as critical to maintain grid reliability. 

It will cost about $1 billion to build the line and state and federal authorities must grant approvals. The expected competition date, if approved, is in 2029.