$1 billion, 115-mile electric transmission line project planned for parts of Central Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) — A roughly $1 billion electric transmission line project could soon cover about 115 miles of land in Central Virginia, stretching from Campbell County to Culpeper County.

Valley Link, a joint venture between Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission, LLC, and Transource Energy, LLC, is planning the Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Line Project, at 765 kilovolts, the highest-capacity power lines in the state and the nation.

“What we’re trying to do with this project is really bring a new backbone, a new interstate of power through the heart of our system,” said Adam Maguire, Dominion’s Strategic Project Advisor within the Electric Transmission Team.

These lines would be anywhere from 135 to 165 feet tall, and, at all points throughout the approximately 115-mile route, would need to clear about 200 feet of land. There are currently two different proposed routes: the route with the most reach would run through Campbell County, Appamattox County, Buckingham County, Goochland County, Fluvanna County, Louisa County, Spotslyvania County, Orange County, and Culpeper County.

Maguire says this project would mark an extension of the existing lines in Ohio and West Virginia into Central and Northern Virginia, where Dominion is seeing its highest demand.

“What that’ll do is not just deliver power up to Northern Virginia, where the load growth currently is, but it will give us an interstate that we can essentially put exits on… to feed demand as it comes to Central Virginia and even Southside Virginia,” Maguire said. “So, it gives us a very flexible resource.”

According to the utility, the Commonwealth is currently experiencing the greatest increase in energy demand since World War II, amid an ongoing data center boom across the state. Virginia is home to more data centers than any other place in the world, and while Dominion says there are a number of other sources of demand for energy, the growth the Commonwealth has seen from these warehouses is unprecedented.

“You can’t ignore that data centers are a new and emerging industry that we historically are not used to,” said Craig Carper, a spokesperson for Dominion Energy. “Elephant in the room, they’re there, and we have to meet the demand to address it.”

Christopher Miller, the President of the Piedmont Environmental Council, says Virginians should expect to see more projects like this one in the future.

“What they’re showing in this one project is just the beginning of a potentially massive transformation of Central Virginia, as we try to feed electrons on this new super highway,” Miller said. “The potential for that to trigger a whole round of development of data centers, of new generation projects, is very real.”

The Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission project will have to slice through miles of land, including forests, farms, and rivers. Valley Link has already sent out letters to about 120,000 people across the route and is hoping to form relationship with landowners to obtain their land through voluntary easements. It would provide compensation at “fair market value,” depending on the piece of land.

As a last resort, Valley Link says it will work to obtain land through eminent domain.

The State Corporation Commission — not individual localities — is the entity that approves Valley Link’s submission, but the process requires engagement with community members. Valley Link is planning to hold open houses in each affected county to speak with landowners and neighbors directly.

“We’re trying to figure out which route is the least impactful, and this is really where the boots meet the ground, and where we get to start talking with people and collecting additional info,” Maguire said. “Which could be that there was a house that we didn’t know about, or maybe there was a cemetery or a sensitive environmental resource. We’ve done a lot of research so far, but we’re looking for the additional info that the people who live where we’re proposing the lines would know that we may not know.”

Maguire says they’ll be working to obtain permits from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and that they will try to limit impacts during construction as much as possible.

“We know that when you’re out there installing a tower in somebody’s field, there’s going to be impacts there, so we try to make sure that we have very dedicated construction coordinators… on site so that if anything comes up as part of the construction process, we can address that very quickly,” Maguire said.

Miller of the Piedmont Environmental Council, though, is frustrated the project will not follow National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) standards, which was passed in 1970 and requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions. Maguire says they’d only need to follow NEPA permitting if they were using federal grants or crossing federal land, but Miller says it’s the obligation to thoroughly assess all the impacts ahead of time that remains crucial for a project of this scale.

“One hundred fifteen miles of new corridor, the equivalent of an interstate highway, with no review of the aggregate and cumulative impacts,” Miller said. “It’s a way of balancing the desire for a project with offsetting the impacts in a way that protects communities and protects the environment… They should be doing everything they can to not only provide power, but do it in a way that minimizes impacts on Virginians.”

Dominion estimates the project will cost about $1 billion, which will be distributed among ratepayers across PJM, the organization that manages the power grid for 13 states, including Virginia. Dominion says their own customers would pay their load-ratio share of PJM’s total load, which it estimates would be about 10% of the total cost.

In 2025, the State Corporation Commission created a separate rate class for Virginia’s largest energy users, including data centers, though it does not become effective until 2027. The decision also approved a $11.24, or 7.5% rate increase for residential customers.

Right now, a bill is advancing in Virginia’s General Assembly that would shift more of the infrastructure costs onto data centers.

“Not only does the industry need to pay 100% of the cost, but they need to pay for the mitigation of the impacts,” Miller said.

Carper with Dominion stressed that the project is still in the very early stages, and that their request for feedback is far from just a “checking the box” exercise, but one that will shape the way they continue with the project.

Of course, what community members can change is limited, but they’re still encouraged to participate in the process. Carper says they’ll do one round of open houses, digest the feedback, incorporate it into their proposed route, do another round of open houses, and then ultimately submit their final recommendation to the State Corporation Commission in September 2026.

“This is going to be months of input that we’re going to have, months of opportunities for the public to come and weigh in at our open houses,” Carper said.

Fluvanna County’s open house will take place on March 10 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Fluvanna Community Center.

“This is really a top-down thing that we’re looking at here,” said Supervisor Mike Goad, who represents Fork Union in Fluvanna County, in a post on Facebook on February 17. “That’s not to say that the County won’t issue statements or do what it can to address concerns of folks as best as we possibly can.”

Duane Adams, Chair of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, says they spoke with representatives from Valley Link at their Board meeting on February 17 and are requesting they return for another Board meeting. That’s in addition to the planned open house on Thursday, March 12, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Betty J. Queen Industrial Center.

“It is a massive project, and it’s going to impact a number of property owners,” Adams said. “Let’s not take a defeatist attitude. Let’s be proactive in sharing concerns and questions and pointing out areas of historical significance that may not have shown up in their desktop exercises.”

The projected completion date on the project is 2029. Miller says the Piedmont Environmental Council will be intervening in the SCC proceedings and is urging county governments to do the same.

“This is not a marginal conversation about how you feel about aesthetics,” Miller said. “This is about an investment in heavy infrastructure that’s going to change the landscape of Virginia, and if we’re moving in that direction, we’ve got to get it right.”

Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.

Copyright 2026 WVIR. All rights reserved.