Appalachian Power will hold an open house this month to share its plan to relocate its Joshua Falls electric substation in Campbell County and build new transmission lines around it.
The move would be part of the Valley Link Joshua Falls to Yeat project, a controversial proposal to build an extra-high-voltage transmission line running about 115 miles from the Joshua Falls substation to Culpeper County.
The open house will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. July 23 at Thomas Terrace Baptist Church, 10660 Richmond Highway, Lynchburg. No formal presentation is planned; the company encourages attendees to come and go. A virtual presentation, including a map, is available online.
The current Joshua Falls substation is by the James River, a few miles outside Lynchburg near the Appomattox County border. Appalachian Power proposes retiring it and constructing a new, upgraded one nearby. It would build about 1.5 miles of 765-kilovolt transmission line and 2.7 miles of 138-kilovolt line and would remove about 3 miles of 765-kilovolt line.
“Relocating the substation is an important step in supporting the Valley Link Transmission Project, helping us meet the area’s growing energy needs and strengthen reliability for customers,” Appalachian Power spokesperson George Porter said in a news release.
Appalachian Power said that landowners in the project area will receive a packet in the mail with more details and a comment card they can return with feedback.
The company anticipates filing its relocation plan with the Virginia State Corporation Commission this year. If the SCC approves it, construction would begin in spring 2028 and finish by fall 2030, the company said.
Appalachian Power also is undertaking early site development activities at Joshua Falls to potentially build a small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR, there. The company said the substation relocation is separate from that work.
Valley Link’s Joshua Falls to Yeat project is designed to extend Appalachian Power’s 765-kilovolt line, which currently ends at Joshua Falls, through Central Virginia and into Northern Virginia.
Valley Link is a partnership among Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission LLC and Transource Energy LLC, which itself is a partnership between Appalachian Power parent company American Electric Power and the electric utility Evergy.
[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Valley Link has said that the 765-kilovolt line — the highest category of power line voltage in the U.S. — is necessary to serve a rising demand for electricity fueled by population growth, electrification, industrial expansion and data centers. It has compared it to the post-World War II investment in interstate highways.
Potentially impacted property owners and others say the project would hurt land values, rural aesthetics, health and the environment. They object to its requirement of 200-foot rights-of-way along the line’s path, with four to five steel lattice towers per mile. Each tower would measure 150 to 175 feet tall, according to Valley Link’s website; Valley Link previously said the towers would range from 135 to 160 feet.
Valley Link plans to file its application for the transmission line project this fall with the SCC, which will decide whether to approve the project and, if so, the specific path it will take.
