There are already big electricity users in eastern Henrico County, including two data centers in White Oak Technology Park, but still more data centers could be coming.
And since that prospect means thinking about infrastructure — in this case, the high-voltage lines necessary to feed electricity into some of the biggest users of power around — a 1,170-page Dominion Energy filing at the State Corporation Commission offers a rare glimpse into the lengthy process that goes into landing a major economic development project.
In the case of White Oak and the area around it, that glimpse comes because Dominion wants the SCC to approve a route for two new 4.69-mile transmission lines through mostly undeveloped woods, fields and wetlands.
Data centers are major consumers of electricity, and White Oak already has two: the one QTS operates in the former Qimonda semiconductor chip plant and one for Meta (formerly Facebook). White Oak is also home to QTS Richmond Network Access Point and the Deutsche Commercial Internet Exchange which access more than 20 fiber networks, four underseas cables and more than 500 data centers worldwide.
Data centers are much sought-after economic development projects because they represent millions of dollars of investment, and local taxes.
But their big power needs have become an issue, especially at a time when the usual way of generating electricity — in coal-, natural gas- or oil-fired plants — emits the carbon-based gases that cause climate change. Dominion has said that to meet the demand, it needs to keep fossil fuel plants running; environmentalists dispute that, on the grounds that Dominion's forecasts about data center growth are too bullish and because many data centers prefer renewable sources, such as solar or wind.
Transmission lines, meanwhile, take years to work through a process of neighborhood consultation, regulatory review, and permitting for crossing wetlands as state agencies also check for possible impacts on wildlife and historic resources.
And after getting all those OKs, comes the nitty-gritty of surveying, securing right of way and tweaking the placement of the monopole towers that will hold the line.
"You want to be sure you're going to be able to span that creek, not end up in the middle of someone's driveway," said Greg Mathe, Dominion's manager for transmission communication.
By the time it comes on line in 2026, the new line will cost Dominion $44.6 million, according to the company.
“It’s a multiple-year process; we start well in advance,” said Stan Blackwell, Dominion's director of customer service and strategic partnerships.
And the line needs to be ready when, in this case, data centers turn on their switches; that means Dominion needed to be planning well before any shovels go into the ground for a new big user of juice.
If the State Corporation Commission approves the route, the line would run from an existing substation on Portugee Road through a part of the technology park and then through undeveloped land lying roughly a mile east of Interstate 295 before crossing I-64 and swinging east to run alongside an existing high-voltage line.
Dominion is seeing signs that more data centers are coming to Henrico – in part, this is because QTS has asked it for improvements to the plant it occupies in order to handle its expanding needs.
That’s already led the utility to install two new transformers at its White Oak substation, and its building a second substation nearby, which will go on line early next year. Planning on these started in 2021.
The new transformers will be able to handle a projected surge in peak summer demand from 20.5 megawatts now to 168.6 megawatts by 2032; while the new substation will pick up a load of 110 megawatts when it comes on line next April, growing to 255 megawatts by 2034. A megawatt is enough electricity to power 250 homes.
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Since then, Dominion has started working with QTS on plans for yet another substation, to come on line in 2025. Initially, it will pick up 126 megawatts at summer peak periods, growing to 194.4 megawatts in 2035.
With all that juice starting to flow and then start growing, the two existing transmission lines serving White Oak and the homes and businesses served by Dominion’s Elko, Portugee and White Oak substations might not be able to handle the loss of a high-voltage transmission circuit or a couple of transformers.
That’s why a third line into the area is needed, Blackwell said.
"We’re building contingency into the system, so that people don’t have to worry about their electricity,” he said.
It’s not just what Dominion sees from QTS that started its planning work on a new line.
Additional demand for power could come because QTS and the Meta data centers at White Oak also hold about 675 acres of undeveloped land at White Oak, Dominion told the State Corporation Commission in a filing seeking its approval to build the new transmission line.
Some could come, too, because a still unsold site at White Oak is in the running to become another data center campus with five facilities at full build-out, the company said.
And at the same time, Dominion thinks a group comprising the Richmond-based Hourigan construction and development group, Vienna Finance and Atlantic Crossing that has been assembling multiple parcels of land north of the White Oak park is aiming to develop another data center campus with several facilities.
But this project isn’t a done deal.
The property – some 530.47 acres in six parcels on both sides of Williamsburg Road and encompassing most of the area between Old Williamsburg Road, Technology Boulevard and Old Memorial Drive — is currently zoned agricultural. Henrico’s supervisors would need to approve a rezoning; Atlantic Crossing asked for this in late 2021.
“We are excited about the potential for Atlantic Crossing and believe it represents a significant opportunity for quality economic development consistent with the nearby White Oak Technology Park,” Henrico director of economic development Anthony Romanello said in an email asking about this project and the proposed sale of the White Oak site.
Henrico has designated data centers a target for its economic development authority, and sets a special 40 cents per $100 assessed value tax rate for data center computers, well below its standard $3.50 per $100 business personal property rate for equipment, furniture and other movable property.
Virginia offers an exemption from retail sales and use tax for data centers’ computer equipment and was the first state to offer data center tenants the sales tax exemption.
“While we think White Oak is a good area for a variety of development opportunities in the near and distant future, we have not made any decisions on the type or scope of future development for this site,” said Brian Jenkins, Hourigan’s senior managing partner for development.
Data centers are also a big reason why Dominion is projecting a surge in electricity demand over the next 15 to 25 years — so much so that the utility says it will need to keep fossil fuel plants running and add enough new gas-fired plants that its carbon emissions would rise, instead of dropping to zero by 2045, as the Virginia Clean Energy Act requires.
Environmental groups and SCC staff have said Dominion’s forecast about data center-driven electricity use is too bullish.
In Henrico, though, data centers are on a growth path, it seems.
"We have to have a need to do a project," Mathe said. "There has to be a need if the SCC is going to approve."
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John D. Gilbody, Assistant Henrico County Attorney, walks past a vine-circled tree as he heads toward the gravesite of Caroline Garthright located deep in the wood near the White Oak Technology Park in eastern Henrico County, VA Friday, March 15, 2019. The county is in negotiations with families on moving the remains of relatives buried on the property.
EDA Deputy Director Anthony Hall, left, looks around as John D. Gilbody, Assistant Henrico County Attorney, steps over the foundation of an old house located deep in the wood near the White Oak Technology Park in eastern Henrico County, VA Friday, March 15, 2019. The county reached a settlement agreement with families on moving the remains of relatives buried in long-neglected graves on the property.
EDA Deputy Director Anthony Hall, left, and John D. Gilbody, Assistant Henrico County Attorney, right, walk past the bricks of an old home located deep in the woods near the White Oak Technology Park in eastern Henrico County, VA Friday, March 15, 2019. The county is in negotiations with families on moving the remains of relatives buried on the property.
John D. Gilbody, Assistant Henrico County Attorney, heads toward the gravesite of Caroline Garthright located deep in the wood near the White Oak Technology Park in eastern Henrico County, VA Friday, March 15, 2019. The county is in negotiations with families on moving the remains of relatives buried on the property.
John D. Gilbody, Assistant Henrico County Attorney, stands behind the gravesite of Caroline Garthright located deep in the wood near the White Oak Technology Park in eastern Henrico County, VA Friday, March 15, 2019. The county is in negotiations with families on moving the remains of relatives buried on the property.
John D. Gilbody, Assistant Henrico County Attorney, walks past a flag located deep in the wood near the White Oak Technology Park in eastern Henrico County, VA Friday, March 15, 2019. The county is in negotiations with families on moving the remains of relatives buried in long-neglected graves on the property.
EDA Deputy Director Anthony Hall in the wood near the White Oak Technology Park in eastern Henrico County, VA Friday, March 15, 2019. The county is in negotiations with families on moving the remains of relatives buried on the property.
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