Appalachian Power will hold an open house next month to provide information about electric grid upgrades designed to accommodate Google’s data center project in Botetourt County, among other goals.
The open house will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. June 3 at Read Mountain Middle School, 182 Orchard Hill Drive in Cloverdale. No formal presentation is planned; attendees are encouraged to come and go any time during the event. The company also has a virtual open house feature on its website.
Appalachian Power’s Daleville Area Transmission Improvements Project aims to upgrade or rebuild 17 miles of 138-kilovolt transmission line; build another tenth of a mile of new 138-kilovolt transmission line; upgrade the Botetourt, Cloverdale, Mount Union and Trinity electric substations; and build a new substation.
The utility said on Friday that the project will support increasing power demand, enhance service reliability and provide power to a new customer, which spokesperson George Porter confirmed is Google. The Mountain View, California-based tech giant plans to build data centers in the Botetourt Center at Greenfield business park.
“Appalachian Power is committed to working closely with landowners and the community as we complete these improvements,” Porter said in a news release. “As always, we’ll work to minimize construction impacts and keep neighbors informed throughout the process.”
In June, Google paid $14 million for 312 acres in the business park. Plans call for three data center buildings of about 300,000 square feet each, three electric substations, a 28,000-square-foot office building, and associated roads and parking, according to a public notice from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Google plans to invest at least $3 billion in the data centers, creating at least 150 full-time jobs with a median annual salary of $86,000, according to a performance agreement between Google and the county. County officials have said they anticipate the project will generate millions of dollars in annual tax revenue.
The plan has raised questions about cost, tax revenue allocation and environmental impacts, including regarding Google’s potential anticipated use of millions of gallons of water per day from the nearby Carvins Cove reservoir.
[Disclosure: Google is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Appalachian Power said it will file an application for its transmission upgrade project with Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, which regulates public utilities in the commonwealth, in fall 2027 and finish construction in late 2029.
Google spokesperson Leslie Schuman said on Friday that the company will pay for the transmission upgrades needed for its data centers.
Schuman referenced Google’s support of the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge, aimed at protecting consumers from rising power costs tied to data centers. The company has published a statement that reads in part, “Google is committed to paying for 100% of the power our data centers use and any new infrastructure costs directly driven by our growth.”
Google has not specified how much power capacity the data center campus will require. Neither Schuman nor Porter provided that figure on Friday; Porter cited a nondisclosure agreement.
In 2024, Google said it would buy all of the power generated by the 79-megawatt Rocky Forge wind farm in Botetourt County, but the company said in late March that the wind farm’s output will not fully cover the data center complex’s needs.
Virginia’s status as the world’s largest data center market is contributing to rising electricity consumption. A 2024 state report said the commonwealth’s power usage could nearly triple by 2040 if data center growth continues unconstrained.
