Power poles can be precariously placed, and many of them are in areas we don’t particularly want them in. But what if the electric company decided it was going to take over your yard and build a brand new one, all without your consent? One Ashburn, Virginia, homeowner could lose roughly a third of her property to a high-voltage transmission line built to feed Loudoun County’s data centers.
Virginia’s State Corporation Commission approved Route 3A for Dominion Energy’s Golden to Mars project on June 29. That project would send 185-foot poles through the Loudoun Valley Estates subdivision, including the backyard where Vicky Hu has lived for 20 years. According to NBC Washington, the pole slated for her yard would stand taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Hu said the route would carve a corridor 100 to 150 feet wide through her land, take out around 400 trees, and consume about a third of her property. She has been fighting the plan for more than a year. Speaking about the data center boom driving the project, she told NBC Washington, “People are angry with data centers, because we’ve been sacrificed.”
The Loudoun County School Board called itself out of summer recess for a special meeting on Monday night at Rock Ridge High School. Roughly 50 people signed up to speak, and public comment ran almost entirely against Route 3A. The board then voted to authorize its lawyers to begin formally challenging the project.
Why the School Board Has a Say
In Virginia, a utility cannot build transmission lines on school property without the school board’s approval, which is what gave an elected education body a role in a power project. State regulators had originally opted for Route 4, which affects the fewest homes. However, that route would run along schools near Rock Ridge High School and Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School.
Homeowners then found a way to give the board some leverage over Route 3A as well. The Loudoun Valley Estates homeowners association deeded 12 acres of its own land, as well as a walking path students use to reach school, and the school board accepted it. Bryan Turner, the attorney representing the HOA, told WUSA9 this idea was meant to give the board the same authority to block 3A that it had already used against Route 4.
What Data Center Growth Is Costing the City
Loudoun County holds the largest concentration of data centers in the world, with about 250 online and roughly 100 more in the pipeline. That growth has delivered billions of dollars in tax revenue to the county. It has also driven the demand that Dominion says makes the line necessary. PJM, the regional grid operator, identified a need for additional transmission in the area and asked Dominion to build it.
Residents are seeing the costs of their own. Dominion recently warned customers to expect electric bills to rise by roughly $8 a month. Homeowners have pressed for the lines to be buried. Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a bill this spring authorizing four pilot projects for underground 500-kilovolt transmission, though nothing so far indicates Golden to Mars would be one of them. What happens next depends on whether the commission acts before July 20 or lets its approval of Route 3A stand.