Data Center
- Prince William Supervisors Vote Unanimously to End By-Right Data Center Development
An 8-0 board vote advances Tom Gordy’s 90-day grace framework, shrinks the 2016 overlay, and leaves residential and school setbacks for later Planning Commission action.
- Dominion Seeks SCC Blessing for Valley Link Affiliates as FERC Weighs 11.4% ROE Incentives
RICHMOND — Dominion Energy is asking Virginia regulators to bless affiliate contracts that would let shell companies carry a
- Mike Turner Strategy: Require Onsite Microgrids, Green Business Zone With Up to 50% Tax Rebate — Or Keep Building 500 kV Lattices
Ashburn supervisor’s paradigm paper says Loudoun’s grid cannot keep pace; he floats mandatory carbon-net-zero microgrids, SMRs, and a Green Business Development Zone sweetened with rebates against ~$666M in data-center BPPT.
- Prince William Votes 8-0 to End By-Right Data Center Development Countywide
Future projects will need special-use permits after supervisors settle on a 90-day grace period and leave residential setbacks for later hearings.
- Virginia Data Centers Point Past 60 GW as Bills, Water, and Diesel Costs Mount
Statewide impact study cites ~1,300 possible facilities, Dominion bill path toward $315, Loudoun’s billion-plus gallons, 8,910 generators, and PJM transmission skewed to data-center load under Democrat-era growth policy.
- Loudoun Democrats Re-Approve Aspen Substation — Sell It as Oxygen-Machine Reliability After Data-Center Boom
After briefly rescinding approval, the Democrat-majority board restores Aspen amid talk of 95 existing or proposed substations; Umstattd and Randall frame wires as life-safety while critics say homes had power before 200 data centers.
- Average Residential Bills Toward $315 by 2039 as Data-Center Load Dominates
Unconstrained Demand cites Dominion figures taking typical residential bills from about $142.77 now to $315.25 by 2039 — primarily on data-center sector energy needs — while JLARC separately pegs $14–$37 monthly generation and transmission cost pressure by 2040.
- From Marye’s Transmission Study to the 2013 Amendment — Utilities Still Take Land for Data Center Load
RICHMOND — Virginia’s modern property-rights constitution did not begin with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo decision.
- Loudoun’s Turning Point: First 5–4 Data-Center Denial in 2024, Scaled 6–3 Pass, Then March 18 End of Open By-Right
Turner’s timeline traces Democrat-board politics from the first major denial of a 2.9M sq ft project, to a 1.3M by-right comeback, to the 7–2 March 18, 2025 vote ending open by-right — with grandfathering still attached.
- Central Virginia Lined Up for 290+ Data Centers — Spreading Loudoun’s Fight Down the I-95 Corridor
Unconstrained Demand says Central Virginia expects 290-plus campuses that would rival Northern Virginia’s hubs, with statewide tallies near 1,300 facilities and 390 million square feet as Democrat recruitment goes statewide.
- Virginia’s Data-Center Boom Runs on Water and Diesel: Loudoun’s Billion Gallons and 8,910 Generators
Unconstrained Demand tallies Loudoun data centers above 1 billion gallons of water in 2023, statewide use above 2.1 billion, and 8,910 mostly Tier 2 diesel generators permitted for up to 500 hours a year.
- Abigail Spanberger Signs Executive Order 22 on Data Center Accountability and AI Task Force
Governor Abigail Spanberger’s Executive Order 22 and 2027 legislative slate target NDAs, local approval for large loads, noise and backup power, and an AI task force—without a statewide moratorium.
- Dinwiddie Residents Grill Haven Oak Data-Center Developers on Water, Power, and Battlefield Land
Tract’s ~1,000-acre campus proposal draws sharp Q&A at VSU as the company pivots to closed-loop cooling and drops buildings over a Civil War battlefield core.
- Virginia Warned in 1999 That Power-Line Easements Leave Landowners Paying for Residue Damage
RICHMOND — Long before Data Center Alley turned Northern Virginia into a magnet for 500 kV and 765 kV corridors, the General Assembly already knew what transmission easements do to private land.
- Meeting Unconstrained Virginia Data-Center Power Demand Will Be “Very Difficult” — Households Face Rising System Costs
December 2024 JLARC Report 598 finds unconstrained demand could double Virginia power need in a decade, new build rates look unachievable, and Dominion residential customers could see $14–$37 more per month in generation and transmission costs by 2040.
- Loudoun’s Substation Swarm: 95 Existing or Proposed, 30–40 More Coming — Every Data-Center Vote Becomes a Wires Vote
County presentations tied to Aspen put Loudoun near a hundred substations with dozens more planned; Democrat supervisors admit approving a campus means approving the substation and line that follow.
- Loudoun Votes: Democrat Board Ends Open By-Right Data Centers — After 9–0 Use Expansion and 5–4 Grandfathering
Ghiorzi hearing notes and Granicus timestamps show a 7–2 main motion, a failed 5–4 attempt to kill administrative grandfathering, a 9–0 add-data-center use on 1972–1993 lots, and Briskman’s 41M / 61M sq ft warning.
- Spanberger’s energy plan keys in on clean energy to meet growing demand and VCEA goals
Gov. Abigail Spanberger unveils energy plan that models how the state can meet energy demands while meeting clean energy goals.
- Spanberger presents slate of data center regulation proposals, puts first directives in motion
Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 on Friday, Sept. 18 to kick off her data center regulation package.
- Mike Turner 2026 Deck: Loudoun Data-Center Load Hit 5.33 GW — Planned Adds Still Short of 14–20 GW Path
Ashburn supervisor’s June 15, 2026 paradigm slides and strategy paper put 53M sq ft built, 60M in pipeline, and microgrid/SMR/HVDC scenarios against a Democrat-board boom that March 18 only partly closed.
- Data-Center Growth Adds Tens of Billions to Plan NPV vs “No Data Center Growth”
SCC-directed 2024 IRP supplement (PUR-2024-00184) shows portfolio NPVs about $100.2–$103.3 billion with data-center growth versus about $77.2–$80.9 billion when data-center load growth is frozen.
- Valley Link’s 765 kV Northern Line Is PATH Reborn — Aimed at Loudoun Data Centers, Critics Say
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — A roughly 260-mile, 765-kilovolt transmission line from West Virginia into Maryland — the northern spine of PJM’s Valley Link portfolio — is being pitched as new reliability steel.
- Kimley-Horn to Loudoun: Data-Center Pipeline Implies ~8,190 MW — More Transmission Than PJM Had Approved
County-commissioned September 2024 due diligence tallies ~117 pipeline buildings at ~70 MW each and urges corridor mapping, undergrounding, collocation, and reconductoring as Democrat-led Loudoun faces the grid gap it helped create.
- Western Loudoun Push: One Underground HVDC Instead of MARL and Valley Link North Overhead
LOVETTSVILLE, Va. — Theresa Ghiorzi and a JotForm petition urge Loudoun, Frederick, and Clarke officials to back a single underground HVDC alternative to FirstEnergy’s MARL/Gore–Doubs–Goose Creek 500 kV and Valley Link North 765 kV lines into Data Center Alley.
- Warner, Kaine and Local Candidates Push to End NDAs on Data Center Deals
Senators urge voters to put officials on the record as secrecy surrounds projects like Wood Haven Technology Park.
- Theresa Ghiorzi Moves to Dismiss Golden-Mars, Citing Loudoun Route Rigging and Untallied Homeowner Takings
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — In PUR-2025-00056, Theresa Ghiorzi asks the SCC to dismiss Dominion’s Golden-Mars 500/230 kV application, restart siting de novo, finish Line #514 first, and stop connecting high-demand customers until Data Center Alley load drops below NERC-violation thresholds.
- The battle over data centers isn’t just about data centers, but they’re the battleground we have.
Marvell data center in Culpeper County, Virginia.
- Ghiorzi Family Tells SCC to Reject Dominion’s IRP: Co-Locate Generation or Make Data Centers Pay for Underground HVDC
LOVETTSVILLE, Va. — In April 2025 comments on Dominion’s 2024 Integrated Resource Plan (PUR-2024-00184), Theresa Ghiorzi and relatives urge the SCC to reject the plan, require campus co-located baseload, and stop socializing ‘multi-driver’ 500/765 kV extension cords from West Virginia coal across 13 PJM states.
- With United States House control hanging in the balance, Wittman faces Taylor in contentious Virginia-01 race
U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, left, is running for reelection in Virginia's 1st Congressional District, as Democratic challenger Shannon Taylor aims to unseat him.
- Dominion’s SCC Filing: 70 GW of Large-Load Requests — Nearly Triple the DOM Zone Peak — Feed the Transmission Fight
RICHMOND — Dominion Energy Virginia’s PUR-2026-00011 large-load connection queue application tells the State Corporation Commission that about 70,000 MW of data-center-scale delivery-point requests are advancing — nearly triple the Dominion Zone’s 24,678 MW all-time peak — with 2,000–3,000 MW more arriving most months.
- MARL Price Tag Climbs Toward $1.46 Billion After Loudoun Reroute and NextEra Cost Doubling
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — The Mid-Atlantic Reliability Link corridor into Data Center Alley is getting more expensive — and Loudoun’s own routing politics are part of the reason.
- NextEra and Dominion sweeten $67 billion merger with longer Virginia bill credits
The state Capitol.
- MARL Power Line Is Generation Delivery for Data Centers, Not Grid Reliability, Filings Argue
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — The Mid-Atlantic Reliability Link project — the multi-state 500-kilovolt corridor also described as MARL / Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek — is being sold as a reliability upgrade.
- PJM Shortlists Dominion’s Heritage-to-Mosby Underground HVDC as Southern Backbone for Northern Virginia Load
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — PJM’s 2025 Window 1 southern-cluster shortlist puts four Dominion +/- 525 kV HVDC variants from Heritage to Mosby — about 185 miles and roughly $4.8–$5.0 billion — against cheaper 765 kV and 500 kV overhead portfolios, with proposal 275 leading incremental transfer into NOVA.
- Data Center Fight Moves Into Greater Richmond as 17 Campuses Advance Across Eight Counties
Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, and Dinwiddie hearings fill with water, power, and tax-base arguments while Spanberger’s September directives and moratorium petitions set the statewide backdrop.
- Data Center Load Is Driving Capacity Costs — and Risk of Blackouts
WASHINGTON / RICHMOND — The Independent Market Monitor for PJM told federal energy regulators that the region’s capacity crisis is not a mystery.
- Line 514 Was Sold as Rusting Towers. Loudoun’s Data Center Alley Needs the Power Anyway.
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Before the Golden-Mars 500-kilovolt project became the latest fight at the State Corporation Commission, another line
- Loudoun County Board Approves Temporary Pause on Data Center Applications
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved a plan during its September 15, 2026, meeting to temporarily pause final action on data center and electrical substation applications requiring legislative approval.
- Dominion Pitches Fully Underground HVDC Into Loudoun as PJM Answer to Data Center Load
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Dominion Energy Virginia is asking the PJM Board to greenlight a High Voltage Direct Current project the
- Loudoun’s Data Center Loop: Democratic Supervisors Greenlit the Boom. Ratepayers and Homeowners Face the Lines.
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Northern Virginia already hosts the densest cluster of data centers on the planet.
- EMF Fear Still Drives Virginia Power-Line Residue Fights as Democrat-Approved Data Centers Need New Steel
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Electromagnetic fields are not a side conversation in Virginia’s transmission boom.
- BPA’s 1989 Transmission Review Left EMF Health Risk Unsettled — And Still Echoes in Corridor Fights
PORTLAND / RICHMOND — Decades before Virginia’s data center boom forced new 500 kV and 765 kV corridors onto the Mid-Atlantic map, the
- PJM Market Monitor Warns FERC: New Data-Center Loads Risk Customer Blackouts — Ghiorzi Backs Complaint
Monitoring Analytics’ November 2025 EL26 complaint says PJM is interconnecting large loads it cannot serve reliably; Loudoun’s Theresa Ghiorzi’s December comments tie the docket to Data Center Alley’s Democrat-built demand surge.
- Loudoun County Supervisors Advance 12-Month Pause on New Data Center Applications
Loudoun’s Board of Supervisors voted 7-1-1 to draft a temporary pause on new data-center applications while rewriting local rules, with a final vote expected in October.
- Data Center Development Could Triple Energy Demand if Unconstrained
On Monday, the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission published its long-awaited Report about data centers.
- Virginia Lawmakers Press for Tighter Oversight of Data Center Growth
A Virginia congressional proposal would give local governments more tools to manage data center growth, including clearer rules for electricity demand, water use and community impacts.
- Virginia’s federal lawmakers lock in on regulating data centers
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, both Virginia-based Democrats, have introduced legislation targeting the data center industry.
- Russell County Eyes Three or Four Data Centers on Reclaimed Moss Number 3 Mine
Oasis Digital Properties says power and clients still must line up while the industrial authority cites a nondisclosure agreement.
- Loudoun Supervisors Vote 7-1-1 to Advance Yearlong Data Center Application Pause
Staff must draft a resolution for a final October vote after Chair Randall frames the pause as time to rewrite local rules.
- Dominion and NextEra Pledge Extra Bill Credits and Jobs if Merger Is Approved
The utilities say average residential customers would get $10 monthly credits for four years under a revised package tied to their proposed $67 billion combination.