This aerial map shows the properties around Dominion Energy's Warrenton Substation.
Scoot District Supervisor Holder Trumbo pressed Dominion Energy spokesperson Steve Precker during a Sept. 8 work session about the company's future plans for the Blackwell Substation project.
This aerial map shows the properties around Dominion Energy's Warrenton Substation.
Dominion Energy plans to delay filing its application with the State Corporation Commission to build a 230 kV transmission line – intended to bring power to the proposed Amazon data center in Warrenton – until 2023, according to Stephen Precker, a communication consultant for the energy company.
Precker also indicated the company would look into the possibility of expanding the Warrenton Substation, located off Old Auburn road, to use distribution lines to serve the facility rather than a transmission line.
During a Sept. 8 work session, Precker told the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors the company will delay its application for the proposed Blackwell Substation project because Dominion needs more time to “evaluate” new information they’ve received. Precker also noted the company would like to give the community other opportunities to review potential updates about the project before the filing.
Precker did not say what new information would become public or when. But he said Dominion has been working with the Virginia Department of Transportation to get permitting for other "potential routes."
Following Precker’s presentation Thursday, Scott District Supervisor Holder Trumbo asked if Dominion was just considering alternative transmission line routes or if it had also weighed the possibility of serving its customer using distribution lines.
“Can you give us a little more of what's changing besides just pushing up the date?” Trumbo asked Precker during the work session.
Precker provided few details but noted Dominion plans to send out “revised route” maps to the community at a later date.
“I don't want to do things piecemeal,” Precker said. “I want to make sure that we vet things properly in order to provide the most up-to-date information to you all and to the public.”
Scoot District Supervisor Holder Trumbo pressed Dominion Energy spokesperson Steve Precker during a Sept. 8 work session about the company's future plans for the Blackwell Substation project.
Not satisfied with his response, Trumbo pressed Precker on why a transmission line would be necessary to serve the facility, noting that distribution lines are being used to serve a separate $200 million data center project – owned and operated by the Amazon subsidiary Vadata – located at the Warrenton Training Center.
“For instance, there are data centers in the [Warrenton] Training Center now that we just approved a right of away for you all for a distribution line for their data centers,” Holder said. “How is this different?”
Precker said the reason distribution lines are being used to serve the training center data center is because those lines feed directly from the Warrenton Substation. But in the case of the Amazon data center, Precker said the substation does not have enough electrical “hookups" for another line.
"There are no more spaces essentially in the Warrenton Substation to pull distribution lines," Precker said.
Center District Supervisor Kevin Carter asked Precker if increasing the Warrenton Substation’s size would mean the company could theoretically use distribution lines instead of building out a new transmission line route and substation.
Precker was adamant a transmission line would need to be built to serve the Amazon data center. However, later he contradicted himself by saying the Warrenton Substation's electric load capacity was not the problem – implying it would be possible to serve the facility using distribution lines.
“It's not the passive energy, it's just simply space in the substation can't be expanded within its current confines,” Precker said.
The county does not own the fairgrounds property, but it does own the Central Sports Complex south of the Warrenton Substation.
County Administrator Paul McCulla entertained the idea that the county could make a deal to buy some of the surrounding land to expand the substation.
“In order to make a deal to expand [the Warrenton Substation’s perimeter], you'd either need the fairgrounds board, or Steve Rodgers, to basically agree to give or sell the land for the expansion project, most likely,” he said.
Precker did not say how much the substation’s perimeter would need to be expanded to serve the Amazon data center.
The Warrenton Planning Commission is currently considering Amazon’s application but has not set a date for when it plans to vote on the request.
The Board of Supervisors does not have jurisdiction over the town’s decision to approve or deny the Amazon’s application. However, supervisors did pass a resolution earlier this summer requesting the General Assembly require Dominion to build the majority of the transmission line underground if built.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the county does not own any of the property surround the Warrenton Substation. The county does own the Central Sports Complex south of the station property.
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The best solution is no data center at all!!
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