Corporate Rotation Program

Fauquier supervisors to Dominion: bury power lines and reveal your clients. * by tate hewitt staff writer * apr 10, 2026 updated 5 hrs ago * 0. The Fauquier County Board of Supervisors has two messages for Dominion Energy: they want the utility to create a list of their biggest consumers and to bury high voltage transmission lines instead of building them overhead. During the board's April 9 meeting, supervisors adopted two resolutions including one that voiced opposition to the Valley Link Joshua Falls to Yeat transmission project - a high-voltage line that would span 115 miles from Campbell County to Culpeper County. The regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, has identified the project as part of long-term reliability planning to meet future power demand. Fauquier County supervisors asked that Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission, and Transource Energy - the companies that have jointly planned the transmission line - bear the cost of installing high voltage lines underground instead of overhead. Supervisors also asked that cost of burying those lines be shared with the data centers that are driving electricity demand in Northern Virginia "rather than imposing the visual, environmental and economic burden of an overhead line onto the citizens of Fauquier County." While the Joshua Falls to Yeat Transmission Line is not planned to traverse Fauquier County, an April 7 presentation from PJM Interconnection included a proposed extension to the Morrisville Substation in Fauquier County, as well as an expansion of that substation. Last year, a planned expansion to that substation was blocked by the Fauquier Planning Commission. Supervisors also voted Thursday to send a letter to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, asking the regulator which oversees Dominion Energy to require the power company to create a public database of the companies in line to be its largest customers. The letter argues that an accessible and updated database of "large-load requests" would help inform the officials making local land-use decisions. "Without clear, accurate, and timely information about where specific large-load requests stand in (Dominion's) queue, we cannot evaluate whether proposed projects are realistically serviceable, assess the timing of potential tax revenues for (c)ounty budget purposes, plan and adopt annual budgets that rely on revenues associated with large-load facilities, make good land-use decisions that comport with infrastructure availability, and avoid approving projects that may be infeasible or subject to prolonged delay due to electric-service constraints," said the letter signed by chair Kevin Carter. In the letter, Carter argues that while Dominion is not subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the State Corporation Commission is. He proposes that a public database could pierce the veil of corporate secrecy and non-disclosure agreements between Dominion and tech companies. "The County and its residents deserve to know what (Dominion) knows about when and how much electricity will be provided to specific large loads in the county," the letter reads. "Placement of data centers in a queue for publicly regulated transmission service should not be considered proprietary to the data centers nor a safety/security threat." The Fauquier County supervisors move comes following similar efforts by local officials in neighboring communities. The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors also voted this week to oppose the proposed transmission line and debated whether to formally oppose a related substation pitched for the Richardsville area of Culpeper County, Inside NoVa reported. Residents of Loudoun County have also asked supervisors for months to call for buried transmission lines for projects. Want to read more stories like this? A subscription to the Fauquier Times helps power quality, local news coverage. Subscribe today.

ElectronX, a US-regulated energy exchange, has launched hourly bounded futures and binary options for the PJM Interconnection market, the nation's largest grid operator serving 67 million customers across 13 states. The 1 MWh contracts enable short-term hedging strategies in a region where wholesale power costs increased 48.9% from 2024 to 2025. The PJM suite features 21 instruments across four wholesale hubs, two interfaces and one zone. Early exchange participants include ENGIE Energy Marketing North America, Gunvor Group and Soma Energy. Regulated by the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market and Derivatives Clearing Organization, ElectronX has nearly 50 exchange members. The company plans to launch contract suites for MISO, CAISO and other regional transmission organisations in coming months.