Eight counties in the proposed path of a massive “extra-high-voltage” electric transmission line are now united in opposing the project.
The last locality to formally voice its opposition was Campbell County, where the board of supervisors on Tuesday voted 4-3 to approve a resolution against the proposed line, called Joshua Falls to Yeat.
Valley Link, the developer behind the $1 billion transmission line proposal, says the line is needed to move electricity into Northern Virginia to support data centers, increasing population, manufacturing and other growth factors, as well as to support electric grid reliability. They have compared it to interstate highways in terms of its importance as an infrastructure project.
Opponents say the transmission line, with steel towers up to 160 feet tall and cleared rights-of-way 200 feet wide, would harm Central Virginia property values, residents’ health and the environment. They are concerned about Valley Link potentially acquiring land through eminent domain, in which private property is forcibly seized with compensation, although the company has said that would be a last resort and it would prefer voluntary agreements.
The resolution that Campbell supervisors passed on Tuesday states that the transmission line is “driven largely by data center development and general load growth outside our region” and that it “provides no direct energy benefit” to the county.
Becky Nix, of Concord, was one of several residents who spoke before the board on Tuesday. She said she shared other residents’ concerns about how the project could hurt property values and health.
“I’m here tonight asking you to protect the beauty of our county from the indelible scar that these monstrous towers and lines would leave in their wake, the negative effect the project would have on all of us trying to live, work and enjoy the community,” Nix said.
Rob Mann, external affairs manager for Appalachian Power, told the board that the line would begin in a corner of Campbell County and that only two-tenths of a mile of the line would be in the county. APCo’s parent company, American Electric Power, is among the energy firms that comprise the Valley Link company.
“The line will make the grid more reliable for homes, schools, hospitals and businesses. It adds another path of power to flow, which helps protect against outages,” Mann said.
Mann said the Valley Link team has held two rounds of open houses in person and online to hear feedback and has revised the proposed routes to reduce impacts on homes, farms and environmental and historic resources.
“The Valley Link project is essential to Virginia’s energy future. It ensures reliability, supports energy generation, powers economic growth and strengthens both rural and urban communities,” he said.
Supervisors voted 4-3 to pass the resolution, which was brought to the board at Supervisor Matt Cline’s request.
Because approval and siting of large transmission lines in Virginia rests with the State Corporation Commission, not county boards, Campbell’s resolution is a largely symbolic “expression of concern,” according to the board meeting’s agenda.
“I want to be sure that the board understands that this isn’t anything more than a communication of your preferences to the State Corporation Commission as they consider possible routes,” Campbell County Administrator Frank Rogers told the board.
But because Campbell would be home to the electric substation that would serve as the beginning point of the line, and because APCo wants to relocate that substation within the county to accommodate the Valley Link project, the board might still have other cards to play.
Valley Link aims for 2029 completion
Valley Link first announced the Joshua Falls to Yeat project in February. The project is named after the two electric substations that would serve as its endpoints: APCo’s Joshua Falls substation in Campbell County and an as-yet-unbuilt substation in Culpeper County that would be called Yeat.
Valley Link is a partnership of Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission LLC and Transource Energy LLC, which itself is a partnership between AEP and the electric utility Evergy.
[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
According to the developer’s latest maps, the line would run about 115 miles between Campbell and Culpeper, crossing six counties: Appomattox, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Goochland, Louisa and Orange.
Spotsylvania County was included in a previous iteration of the proposed routes but is not in the current one. Spotsylvania also opposes the project.
American Electric Power has a 765-kilovolt line — the highest voltage category of transmission lines in the United States — that ends at the Joshua Falls substation, which is on the James River just a few miles outside Lynchburg.
The new transmission line would carry electricity from that substation to Northern Virginia. Valley Link also plans a new transmission line called Valley North that would run from West Virginia across Northern Virginia to Maryland.
Valley Link has said it plans to file its application, including its final decision on a proposed route, with the State Corporation Commission this fall. It hopes to have the line completed in 2029.
In public meetings, news reports and social media, numerous potentially affected Virginians have shared stories about how they believe their homes and businesses will be harmed.
Rick Summy, of Concord, told the board on Tuesday that he and his wife, Cheryl, bought their Campbell County house to enjoy entertaining, gardening, hunting and fishing.
“This project would negatively affect our family’s greatest investment, as our property would be adjacent to the proposed power line route. … We personally see no benefit of this proposed power line project to our property and none to Campbell County,” Summy said.
Counties’ role as endpoints might give them some sway
County boards don’t have a role in the approval of large transmission lines. But of the eight counties in the line’s proposed path, Campbell and Culpeper might have the greatest leverage because of their roles as the endpoints.
In Campbell County, APCo wants to move the Joshua Falls substation to a nearby property to accommodate the Valley Link project.
Mann, of APCo, told the board on Tuesday that it’s “just not feasible” to build Valley Link’s endpoint at the current Joshua Falls substation, which sits on a ridge overlooking the James River, because there isn’t enough space to fit all of the necessary transformers and other equipment.
Cline, the supervisor who represents the county’s Concord district where the substation is located, said in a phone interview on Monday that the proposed relocation is “a huge issue for the residents in that area.”
The property chosen for the new substation is zoned for agricultural use and so would require either a special-use permit or a rezoning, which Campbell’s board of supervisors could approve or deny, Cline said.
“That’s where the teeth would come in,” he said.
The power company has not yet submitted its relocation plan to the county.
“We will be coming before the board to speak about the station for approval for that in the future,” Mann told the board on Tuesday.
Mann said that even if Valley Link’s proposal isn’t approved, APCo still might consider relocating the substation because the company is exploring building a small modular nuclear reactor at Joshua Falls.
In Culpeper, the board of supervisors adopted a resolution in April opposing Valley Link and the Yeat substation.
County officials now are working to beef up the county’s comprehensive plan — a guidebook for how land should be used — to emphasize its “high priority on preserving its rural character” and to keep high-voltage transmission lines away from residential areas and natural resources, according to the Culpeper Star Exponent newspaper.
In May, Valley Link representative Lane Carr told Culpeper supervisors that Valley Link does not have a planned alternative endpoint besides Yeat.
Supervisors asked what would happen if the corporation commission approved the transmission line but the county refused to approve the proposed Yeat substation.
Carr said, in that case, Valley Link probably would look into whether the corporation commission, instead of the county, could have authority over the substation.
