Background

Data centers in Northern Virginia are continually imposing increasing stress on the power grid. The NextEra Western Loudoun 500 Kilovolt power line, which regional transmission coordinator PJM announced at the end of last year to meet data center power demand, has been a major advocacy focus. This line, known as the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link (MARL), was originally proposed to be a greenfield (undeveloped land) line cutting diagonally through Western Loudoun. The proposed corridor would bisect and disrupt riparian buffers, farms and mature forest.

The proposed MARL route was also included in the preliminary list of potential national interest electric transmission (NIETC) corridors that would expedite the process of the line’s routing designation and construction. Phase 2 of this potential designation process ended on June 24. Loudoun Wildlife submitted comments stating our position and will be monitoring the process for the announcement that the mid-Atlantic route has moved to Phase 3. See the map below for the originally proposed corridor.

Originally proposed corridor. Map credit: Piedmont Environmental Council.

Recent Developments

At a meeting of PJM’s Transmission Expansion Advisory Council (TEAC) on July 9, a proposed scope change was announced that would cancel the NextEra route through Western Loudoun. The PJM board made this change official at the beginning of August 2024. Instead of constructing a new line, power will reach data centers by using existing rights-of-way along a northern corridor in West Virginia and Maryland, then cutting south to get to Ashburn.

The cancellation of the greenfield route is good news, and we are grateful to all of our Loudoun Wildlife members and neighbors that helped fight for this result. However, advocacy on this issue is not done. The new route will have far fewer ecological impacts, but it is still important to ensure that the new route is using existing right-of-way responsibly. This includes ensuring that the widening of current corridors (as is required for the larger 500kV lines) does not harm wildlife and minimizes ecological impacts as much as possible.

For more information:

• The Loudoun Transmission Line Alliance was created by representatives of Loudoun nonprofits and community groups to oppose the construction of the MARL greenfield line through Western Loudoun. Resources on the Alliance website for this project include a declaration of position on the line and organizational impact study showing the impacts on affected organizations from the line.
• NextEra project page
• Loudoun Now article on most recent development
• Resources from the community meeting held by Piedmont Environmental Council on the problem of transmission lines caused by data centers.

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