Dominion, NOVEC consider Warrenton to Vint Hill transmission line

Tuesday, Mar. 5 | By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

All those new homes between Warrenton and Gainesville -- filled with Ipods and Ipads, smart phones and big-screen TVs – use a lot of power.

So much so, the demand for juice to power those gadgets may soon overwhelm the ability of Dominion Virginia Power's transmission lines to supply electricity.

Dominion, working with the its largest wholesale electric customer, the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, wants to build a new transmission line connecting a substation just outside of Warrenton with two others -- one near Vint Hill and the other in Gainesville.

"At the end of the day, what we're after is reliable, responsible, reasonable power for our customers," said Scot Hathaway, vice president of transmission for Dominion.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) monitors the nation’s electric grid and sets standards for transmission companies, like Dominion, to provide a steady, reliable flow of current to American consumers.

In the face of growing demand and regulatory pressure from NERC to meet that demand, Dominion faces the difficult task of convincing residents of Fauquier and Prince William counties of the need for a new transmission line.

Stung by bitter battles in the past, the most recent in 2007 over a 500 kilo Volt (kV) transmission line across southern Fauquier, the utilities launched an advance public relations effort to soften opposition to the project.

The goal of the Community Advisory Group (CAG) the utilities plan to create is to get public input, not just on the need for the project, but on possible ways to meet that need and suitable routes for any new transmission lines across the county.

See Wednesday's Times-Democrat for the full story.

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