SCC Adds Time For Public Comment, Testimony In Morrisville To Wishing Star Power Line Case

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA – Virginia’s utility regulator has allowed deadlines to be extended in the Morrisville to Wishing Star Transmission Line Case, including adding more time for public comment.

In a press release, the Loudoun County government announced that Virginia’s State Corporation Commission had modified the procedural schedule of the case over Dominion Energy’s proposed Morrisville to Wishing Star transmission line. The change will allow more time for public comment and for participants to provide testimony.

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The Morrisville to Wishing Star project proposes a new 500-kilovolt transmission line within an existing power line route that runs from Fauquier County through Prince William County and ends near Arcola in Loudoun County. There is an active application for the project before the SCC.

The route stretches 36.5 miles from the Morrisville Substation in Fauquier County to the Wishing Star substation near Arcola in Loudoun County. Loudoun County officials note that the 4.8-mile segment in Loudoun County follows an existing high voltage transmission corridor that is already slated for rebuilding, with existing lattice towers to be replaced with poles to support the existing 500 kV and 230 kV transmission lines and an additional 500 kV transmission line.

Conservation groups have expressed concern about how the power line will affect the historic Manassas Battlefield Park and have requested a full environmental review.

The Coalition to Protect Prince William calls the route a “superhighway of power transmission” and criticized the evolution of the project from one merely replacing old structures to one that requires more land and additional lines, all to feed data centers rather than residences.

Loudoun County, which is a participant in the case, supports the use of the existing transmission corridor right of way, originating at the Prince William County line and ending at the Wishing Star substation south of Brambleton, the county noted in its release.

Procedural Schedule Adjustments

The specific schedule changes are as follows:

• The deadline for Loudoun County and other respondents to submit testimony and exhibits is extended six weeks from July 2 to August 13.

• The deadline for public comments is extended from September 25 to October 30. (A hearing for public witness testimony remains scheduled for the original date, September 30).

• The evidentiary hearing originally scheduled for October 7 has been rescheduled to November 16, with the possibility of continuing to November 17-20 and November 23 and 24, if needed.

Detailed information on how to participate in the case can be found here.

See more about recent data center developments here.