In a letter sent late last month, PJM Interconnection approved changes to the scope of the Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Project.
The project is one of three proposed by joint venture Valley Link, of which Dominion is a member, and approved by regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection. It would build approximately 115 miles of 765kV transmission lines from Campbell County to Culpeper County with preliminary routes crossing up to nine localities, including Orange County. At 765kV, the transmission lines are the highest voltage, highest capacity transmission line type available in the country and would include structures between 135 and 160 feet tall requiring approximately 200 feet of right-of-way. Valley Link representatives have said the project is needed to solve grid reliability issues amid unprecedented growth in the demand for energy. The project would allow power being generated in the Ohio River Valley to be accessed in Northern Virginia, which, according to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. Eight of the nine counties involved, including Orange County, are opposed to the project.
In May, Valley Link representatives presented changes to the project. The changes were already included in local public presentations and consisted of mainly relocating the Yates substation into Culpeper from the originally proposed location in Fauquier, reducing the project from the originally approved 156-mile project to the 115-mile project being presented to the public. Valley Link said it hoped to have approval of the changes by July.
On July 16, PJM did just that. In a letter sent to stakeholders, PJM Interconnection President and CEO David Mills said the change of the Yeat substation location was in direct response to meetings Valley Link had with stakeholders.
“Valley Link found that the Culpeper substation location outperformed the original substation alternative across impact, constructability and system efficiency, all while meeting PJM reliability requirements,” Mills wrote. “The evolution of the proposed route from one that paralleled or co-located with existing corridors, to one that is more greenfield in nature is an outcome of Valley Link’s routing study, which revealed that the original route was less constructible than the new greenfield route.”
Mills said the modified project still represents the more efficient or cost-effective solution based on the criteria used to evaluate projects.
Valley Link plans to submit the project to the SCC for evaluation and approval in October. The SCC process takes approximately one year to complete.
