New Transmission Line Subject of Wednesday Public Meeting

MAP shows possible routes for proposed transmission line.

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A public hearing is planned for Wednesday on Dominion Virginia Power's renewal of its proposal for a 230kV transmission line in Alexandria. The City has scheduled a public meeting on Wednesday, March 23 in City Hall, Room 1101 at 7 p.m.

The power company first proposed the new infrastructure two years ago. The power company says research from PJM shows that the existing infrastructure will exceed capacity by 2020.

On Feb. 11, Dominion officials met with City staff and indicated that the utility planned to renew its proposal for the 230kV transmission line, with plans to file a formal application to the Virginia State Corporation Commission in summer 2016, the City said.

As of Tuesday, the City has received no new technical information (other than the schedule change) that would warrant changing the Working Group’s recommendations.

Here's the recent announcement from Dominion on its renewed proposal:

DVP personnel has used the interim period between late 2014 and today to incorporate two new PJM load forecast cycles into our electrical planning analysis. Although the updated forecast data reflects a minor slowdown in the pace of projected energy demand growth, we have confirmed that a net increase in projected demand remains on the horizon.

The updated projections continue to indicate overloads along transmission lines that service Alexandria and Arlington County. The existing infrastructure is projected to exceed capacity by the Summer of 2020, which will negatively impact service reliability to local customers and violate federal capacity requirements.

DVP has used the updated PJM forecast data to reevaluate electrical planning solutions that will prevent these overload conditions. As a result of that analysis, we have reaffirmed that a new 230kV line between the Glebe Substation and Pepco’s Potomac River Substation would provide the most effective long term solution.

Now that we have confirmed the most appropriate and effective engineering solution, DVP will begin to fully analyze the various route alignments that were evaluated by the City’s Work Group. Dominion's project team will provide updates to area stakeholders as milestones are met in the project development stages. Dominion plans to file formal application with the VA State Corporation Commission in summer 2016.