'Setting Precedents': Ashburn Neighbors Fight New Power Line Route Proposal

ASHBURN, VA — Vicky Hu was aware of the Golden to Mars project that would install new power lines near her home in the Loudoun Valley Estates neighborhood of Ashburn.

But in June, Vicky Hu received a call from Dominion Energy informing her that a new proposed route would run through her residential property.

Golden to Mars is a proposed Dominion Energy project under consideration by Virginia's State Corporation Commission.

According to Hu, the Dominion Energy representative said the Loudoun County School Board rejected the previously preferred Route 3 because it ran through school property. That led the electric company to propose the new Route 3A, which impacts an estimated seven properties. Hu's property is the most directly impacted, because the proposed power lines would enter her yard between her house and detached garage.

"When you drive around the Ashburn, you don't see overhead power lines. All the community, all our power line is very underground, so why [do] we pay the premium real estate, and now we have to [see] an overhead high voltage power line?" Hu told Patch. "It's not supplying the power to the community, it's to the data centers. And what's the benefit to the residents now? We are the victim of their multi-million dollars project."

Six other homes are directly impacted, but the neighbors say additional homes are affected with the power lines in close proximity. Dominion Energy has contacted residents directly affected by the 3A proposed route, but some of Hu's surrounding neighbors learned about the proposed power line route through her.

Residents have created a nopowerlines.org website to fight the proposed route.

"They keep minimizing everything they do by saying it's only affecting, for example, these seven houses," Loudoun Valley Estates resident Mike Canfield told Patch. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. … If you live across the street, if you live up the street, around the street, you're going to see those things. They're monstrous."

About the Golden to Mars Proposal

In 2022, Dominion Energy informed Loudoun County leaders about the demand for more electricity to meet the data center load. The electric company has since pursued three projects to increase capacity and reliability in the Ashburn area: Wishing Star to Mars, Aspen to Golden and Golden to Mars.

New power lines must be approved by the State Corporation Commission.

The Wishing Star to Golden project in southern Loudoun County to just west of Dulles International Airport is under construction and could finish in December. Aspen to Golden, an approximately nine-mile project from southeast of Leesburg to just west of Route 28 via about four miles of Route 7, was recently approved by the SCC.

Loudoun County and Lansdowne Conservancy, which sought underground power lines for a portion of the route, are pursuing a joint appeal. Work on permitting and setting structure locations is in the process. Dominion Energy is estimating a summer 2028 completion date for the project.

Golden to Mars is the third piece in Dominion Energy's plan to address data center electricity demand in Ashburn. Several route options were proposed with a preferred route by Dominion Energy, but the final decision is up to the SCC.

"As a government grant entity, we would be legally required to provide this power," Aisha Khan, a spokesperson for Dominion Energy, told Patch. "This is why we have this open transparency of what would be going into either of these routes, and we want to suggest a route is going to have the least impact, not only on residents, but also the environment and everything else surrounding that."

Rob Richardson, an electric transmission communication consultant for Dominion Energy, said finding locations for new transmission lines is challenging. He says a portion of the proposed Golden to Mars route south of the Dulles Greenway toll road utilizes existing transmission lines.

"What we start with is we look at existing transmission lines, and can we colocate with existing transmission lines," said Richardson.

Before Dominion Energy submitted its proposal to the SCC in late March, Loudoun County's Board of Supervisors had endorsed Route 4 as their preferred option, with Route 3 as its second choice.

Route 3 has been Dominion Energy's preferred option since it filed in late March. However, a Loudoun County School Board vote to not allow the route to be on school property led Dominion Energy to file 3A route as a new proposed option on May 16. Route 4 is another option that would have an impact on school property.

One big difference between Route 3 and Route 3A is that the proposed power line path no longer enters school property near the back of the Rock Ridge High School and Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School campus. Instead, the route now extends closer to homes on a cul-de-sac in Loudoun Valley Estates. In the cases of some homes like Hu's, the project enters residential property lines.

Reaction to the New Power Line Route

Residents believe there is a better way than the massive power lines proposed around their properties. Residents like Hu are protective of the natural surroundings around the homes, some of which sit above the Broad Run stream.

"Residential communities are also put in after those power lines exist. This is happening after the fact," said Canfield. "Every single one of these communities is going to see a depreciation in their home values, even the ones who aren't impacted and don't see it. It's going to affect everybody, in addition to health issues."

Maritess Pak, who lives in one of the seven directly impacted homes, expressed concerns about having young children near the new power lines. Pak says the proposal has been stressful and has caused fears for her young kids of having to move.

"I have young kids that live in our house, and while there isn't a direct correlation, there are indications and [some] research that says that high voltage so close to young children could potentially cause health implications," said Pak. "I have high concerns knowing that my young kids that go to the public schools around here, that are learning and are living in our house, are going to be so close to these power lines."

Pak added that the proposal has been stressful for her family, leading her kids to be worried about moving. She also feels for residents who sought to retire there and will face views of power lines in their yards.

Khan said the company understands no one wants to see power lines in backyards, but they serve a necessary purpose.

"It goes back to, we are meeting growth," said Khan. "We are meeting demand. You want to turn the lights on in your house. We've got to put the power lines where we we think is going to have the least impact on your on your property value, on the environment. Yes, they may not be the best thing to look at, but, but I also feel like this is something we've all grown up with. Power lines are a part of your neighborhood."

"Routing new transmission lines is is probably one of the hardest things that we do," added Richardson. "What I would say to residents is, The best thing you can do is to continue to show up to our to our community meetings to make your voice heard and to let us know how you feel about these projects, how you feel about these routes."

Dominion Energy's Golden to Mars proposal calls for most of the power line structures to be double circuit monopoles, with one side having a 500 kilovolt circuit with three wires, and the other a 230 kilovolt circuit with three wires.

Will Taggart, who owns the most impacted house with Hu, said they've gone around to find examples of what 500 kilovolt and 230 kilovolt power lines look like in existing Loudoun County neighborhoods. But he said those power lines were built after the power lines went in.

"It shouldn't be the houses get built, and then you put in high voltage through those neighborhoods. It makes absolutely no sense, and just from our architectural style, you're not going to place your houses with a view directly of the power lines," said Taggart. "If you go around to these sites, the architects had designed the street layouts so that if there is an exposure, it was a side exposure."

Bryan Turner, an attorney representing Loudoun Valley Estates who has also represented Lansdowne Conservancy in the Aspen to Golden case, called it an injustice that underground routes are off the table after Dominion Energy explored possible options before the SCC filing.

"The community was following and interested in the [underground] routes, and then two months prior to filing their application, they took every single one of those routes off the table and left the community with only above ground routes pitting the community, one community against another...and it has been a huge injustice for the community to have to grapple with that," said Turner.

Turner noted the county's involvement with the Aspen to Golden SCC case and the push for underground power lines. He said the county is in discussions about underground routes that could be reliable and has hired its own engineers to explore underground options.

SEE ALSO: Power Line Ruling Appealed By Loudoun County, Another Project To Get Hearings

Dominion Energy has pointed to a greater cost plus challenges of navigating existing underground infrastructure.

"We have done a very thorough feasibility study on this to see if this is even possible, and it is not," said Khan. "There is a lot of rubble. There's a lot of other utility lines underground. We're talking, water, talking sewage, we're talking internet that we would just not be able to get past and to make that feasible basically. Forget cost, we're talking just trying to get underground, all of that underground rubble, it would be just way too much to get through."

In supporting underground power lines, Turner pointed to an underground 500 kilovolt circuit project put underground in California. He noted Black & Veatch, which has contracted for Dominion Energy, constructed the underground 500 kilovolt lines in California.

Richardson said underground 500 kilovolt lines needed in Loudoun County are "almost nonexistent in the U.S." He noted underground transmission lines would require a transition station with five to seven acres of property.

"We weren't able to find a location for those types of facilities here, in addition to all of the other challenges," said Richardson. "We knew that the community was interested in that. We looked very hard at it. We studied it."

The Impact of Data Centers

Both residents and Dominion Energy acknowledge the power lines are also a consequence of the impact of data centers on the residential community. Hu notes that Ashburn already has over 100 data centers, and more than 100 are in the pipeline.

"Even they don't pick London County [Parkway] this time, they still will come try again in two years, because they have to have a power line go somewhere," said Hu, referring to one of the Golden to Mars routes that would have been near more homes along Loudoun County Parkway. "So in 10 years, when you look at Ashburn we're going to live in a spider way of a power line if [the] county doesn't figure out how to bring the power."

"I'm a big pro technologist, I myself am a solution architect who uses technology every day," Loudoun Valley Estates resident Ana Desai told Patch. "Data centers are amazing. But while we are mixing commercial infrastructure on residential infrastructure, are there any plans for those commercial infrastructure to be in their own space and not cross over the residential spaces? That's my biggest concern."

"I used to tell my friends living in other towns saying how well that this city is where I don't see any power lines," added resident Praveen Kumar. "It made me very sad, seeing all the power lines going to the data centers everywhere else, and now seeing them coming in our backyard."

Turner noted that there have been bills relating to data center regulations in the Virginia General Assembly that the data center industry has been opposing. One failed bill from Sen. Kannan Srinivasan (D-Loudoun) called for passing on some costs of undergrounding to data center customers.

"In my mind, the data center industry needs to take a much, much greater role in helping the community mitigate the impacts of these transmission lines," added Turner. "They need to go and they need to support underground. They need to support alternative solutions for bringing low growth to the area."

Dominion Energy's Khan says the company is legally obligated to provide power and acknoweldges that the growth of data centers has been rapid.

"Residents do understand that they know that the growth is happening. They know that, you know we have to legally provide power," said Khan. "This is why we have subject matter experts. Whenever we have this community meeting, someone who can talk about property values, or land values, are there any health risks? We have somebody who talks about that. So this is why we have a whole group of Dominion energy experts available on hand to answer these questions."

Dominion Energy held two recent open houses in January, but officials acknowledged that the new 3A route had not been proposed at that time.

What's Next for the Golden to Mars Power Lines

The group of impacted Loudoun Valley Estates residents want residents to get involved with the SCC hearings. They say power line proposals could affect other residents in Ashburn if they haven't already.

"All of Ashburn needs to be concerned, because all of the data centers that are planned are not built yet," said Melanie McDonald. "So you might not be on Golden to Mars, but there might be another route, and you might be on it. And if we all can force Dominion to figure out how to underground, be innovative, and then we'll all as a community, benefit."

"You start setting precedents. If you say that's OK for this neighborhood, let's you know once for another neighborhood, for them to just go through that they didn't properly plan," added Pak.

The residents are also pushing the Loudoun County School Board to file a notice of participation in the SCC case. In a letter to the school board, Turner called for the school board to join the county to oppose above-ground power line proposals.

"This will not be the last time the School Board will be involved in making these decisions and you don't want to set a bad precedent," Turner noted in his letter. "You can make a difference when the time is right, and it is too early now to capitulate."

Residents plan to seek school board's support for underground power lines at the Aug. 12 school board meeting.

As for the Golden to Mars approval process, two SCC public hearings will be held in Loudoun County — 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 18 and 29 at Rock Ridge High School, 43460 Loudoun Reserve Drive, Ashburn. There will also be a public witness hearing by telephone at 10 a.m. on Dec. 15, followed by an evidentiary hearing at the SCC in Richmond.

Residents may also complete a public witness form for case number PUR-2025-00056 on the SCC’s website, call the SCC at 804-371-9141 during business hours (8:15 a.m.-5 p.m.) to sign up to speak at the hearing, or send mail to Clerk of the State Corporation Commission, c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118, referencing case number PUR-2025-00056. Comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Dec. 9.

After the evidentiary hearing in December, the SCC hearing examiner will make a recommendation about 30 days later in January 2026. A final ruling would follow in about 30 days.