Ashburn Homeowners Petition SCC To Reconsider Golden To Mars Power Line Ruling

ASHBURN, VA – The Loudoun Valley Estates Homeowners Association and HOA Roundtable filed a petition with the State Corporation Commission April 29 asking it to reconsider its order from earlier in the month that agreed that it would be impractical to run the controversial Golden to Mars power lines underground.

The Golden to Mars project is one of three projects Dominion Energy has pursued to meet the data center load in the Ashburn area, or "Data Center Alley." The two other connecting projects are Wishing Star to Mars and Aspen to Golden.

Ashburn residents have been fighting the proposed power lines, which would be strung along poles 165 feet tall or taller running through or near densely populated areas, including backyards and schools, for more than a year now. Among other arguments, Ashburn area homeowners have said their community power lines are underground, and the beauty and peace of their expensive properties are being eroded for power that doesn’t even serve them.

The Loudoun County School Board also stepped in to advocate against lines that could affect students at Rock Ridge High School and Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School, the Virginia Mercury reports.

Several routes were proposed for the Golden to Mars line. The SCC’s April 9 ruling approved two: Route 4 and Route 3a. Loudoun Now reports that the judges preferred Route 4 because it is shorter, would require fewer new rights-of-way, and is closer to fewer homes than its alternative. But that route requires an easement from the School Board, which the board has been unwilling to grant. The SCC therefore conditionally approved the less-desirable route 3a. It declared that undergrounding the lines was not feasible.

However, just a week later, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed into law a bill allowing for four pilot projects to build electrical transmission lines of 500 kilovolts underground and authorizes the SCC to approve and expedite the review of such applications.

The Loudoun Valley Estates Homeowners Association hopes language in the new law pertaining to local support for undergrounding projects and options offered for sharing costs with a locality will persuade the SCC to reconsider its order.

Loudoun County claims the highest concentration of data centers in the world. Dominion Energy, which provides power to much of the state, says the new power lines are needed urgently to maintain power grid reliability.