Dominion Energy has filed an application to construct seven miles of new high voltage lines in western Chesterfield County, Virginia, to serve a planned 900MW hyperscale data center.
According to local reports, the new transmission infrastructure will cost an estimated $121 million. The identity of the data center developer was not disclosed, but the facility is expected to be located in the Chesterfield County technology park, in Upper Magnolia Green, a housing development on the western outskirts of Richmond.
In a filing with the State Corporation Commission, Dominion reported that it would supply the power in three 300MW phases. The first phase is slated for completion in 2031, with the following two planned for 2032 and 2033. At full build out the data center will be supplied with 900MW of power.
To supply the data center, the utility plans to construct two 230kV double circuit overhead transmission lines from the company’s existing Midlothian Substation to the proposed new Duval Substation in Chesterfield County. The new transmission lines will also serve projected residential and commercial demand in the region, which is expected to grow by 134MW by 2038.
Dominion has indicated that it intends to begin construction on the line by February 2027, with completion slated for June 2028. Dominion admitted that the timeline could change if there are further delays in other permits and complications in the scheduling of outages of other lines.
Next month, the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors will vote on a proposed rezoning of about 870 acres of the northern portion of the county’s planned Upper Magnolia Green technology park for use as a data center.
Virginia, which is already the largest data center market in the world, is expected to grow even more over the remainder of the decade. In its last earnings report, Dominion revealed that it has approximately 40GW of data center capacity in various stages of contracting as of December 2024. This compares to 21GW in July 2024, an 88 percent increase.
To meet the skyrocketing demand for power, the utility has adopted an “all of the above” approach to power generation, set out in its 2024 Integrated Resource Plan. The plan's power generation profile is largely derived from carbon-free sources, representing 80 percent of the overall capacity. However, with recent executive moves to stifle the development of clean power in the country it remains to be seen whether Dominion will maintain its support for clean power projects.
Earlier this year, Dominion announced it was on track to deliver its 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project by the end of 2026, which, according to the utility, will play a key role in supporting its approach to power generation and “America’s AI preeminence.”
Before this, it announced that it was adding a further 44MW to its 645MW Possum Point Power Station in Virginia to meet growing data center demand.
