As a Dominion Virginia Power representative in Manassas tried to explain to 1,000 persons the advantages of a proposed electrical transmission line across 40 miles of Northern Virginia, protesters nearby chanted, “Say no. We won’t glow.”
Residents who listened to his presentation at the George Mason University campus Thursday night seemed unimpressed by his assurances the 500-kilovolt overhead power line would avoid blackouts.
“We’re sending people to the moon,” said Wendy Ault, a Manassas pediatrician. “You can put this underground.”
In each of the three public workshops the electric utility has held in the past week, protesters have been “very aggressive,” said David B. Botkins, Dominion Virginia Power spokesman. About 1,000 area residents showed up Thursday night at a university gymnasium, some to protest, others to ask questions.
With demand for electricity increasing in Northern Virginia, the area’s electric utility says it must build a new power line if residents want to avoid rolling blackouts and higher electricity bills.
“Our data shows that from the year 2000 to 2011, the demand for electricity in Northern Virginia alone will have increased by 44 percent,” Mr. Botkins said. “If we’re going to continue to keep the lights on and meet demand for electricity in Northern Virginia, we must build this line.”
Some residents said they worried the at-least 150-foot-wide swath the power line would cut through the Shenandoah Mountains would uproot homes and farmland and trample Civil War battlefields that lie in its path under rights of eminent domain.
“The overhead lines are cheaper and they’re ugly,” one man said over the voice of a Dominion representative. “We have to live with this. You don’t have to live with it. It’s a profit issue is what it is.”
Opponents from the Piedmont Environmental Council say the utility should seek other alternatives, such as offering financial incentives to customers who reduce their electricity consumption. The group accuses the power company of hiding its true motive of increasing profits by extending its power grid farther into Northern Virginia.
Dominion Resources Inc., parent company of Dominion Virginia Power, reported net income of $654 million in the three months ending Sept. 30 compared with $15 million a year earlier.
The company says it is trying to keep residents informed about its plans through the public workshops. Representatives of the company met with residents in small groups at the university gymnasium to explain different aspects of the project.
In the spring, Dominion plans to file its application with the State Corporation Commission to build the transmission line across five counties, from its Loudoun County substation northwest of Gainesville to its Meadow Brook substation, northeast of Front Royal. The possible routes roughly follow Interstate 66.
If the application is approved after public hearings, the company plans to begin construction in 2009.
Some of the nation’s highest population growth rates, particularly in Loudoun and Prince William counties, are at the heart of the need for more electricity.
The new residents are drawn by the region’s job growth, such as from the 15 high-tech data centers planned for Loudoun County, relocation of Defense Department offices to Fort Belvoir and expansions at Tysons Corner and Washington Dulles International Airport.
A U.S. Department of Energy study released in August characterized Northern Virginia as one of two national “critical congestion areas” for electricity transmission.
The Energy Department said the region needs “billions of dollars of investment in new transmission, generation and demand-side resources over the next decade to protect grid reliability and ensure the area’s economic viability.”
Dominion Virginia Power would invest $150 million in the line. It would connect with a 210-mile power line planned by Allegheny Energy, a power company serving western Virginia, stretching through rural areas of Virginia, West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania.
Putting the transmission line underground — one of the demands of protesters concerned about the unsightliness of 125-foot transmission towers and health hazards of the overhead lines — would add about $1 billion to the cost, the power company says. It also would create security risks from vandals digging up the line and lengthen blackouts as work crews try to repair damage.
“If an outage occurs, it’s much harder to find the source of that outage,” Mr. Botkins said. “Then you have to dig in the ground.”
He also denied overhead lines create health hazards, such as cancer, saying the scientific evidence is inadequate.
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