Fluvanna isn't the reason.

Where the demand is, and where the towers would be

Fluvanna does not have the massive increase in electricity demand that is driving the Valley Link project. The major growth is farther north, with data centers and other large power users playing a major role.

Fluvanna is not the customer this line is being built to serve. It could, however, bear a substantial part of the physical impact: a new corridor about 200 feet wide and towers typically 150 to 175 feet tall, across farms, forests, waterways, homes and historic landscapes.

Why this matters before anything is approved

A line can be useful to the region and still be the wrong line, in the wrong place. Before a rural county carries a permanent change, the people proposing it should be able to show:

• how much of the claimed need comes from existing, energized load, and how much comes from projects that are approved or planned but not yet operating;
• whether the project is still necessary in a conservative case that counts only facilities that are operating or ready to energize;
• that existing corridors, upgrades, co-location and staged solutions were fully and fairly evaluated.

A note on fairness: PJM's current forecasting can treat certain unenergized loads with formal service or construction commitments as firm. Asking for an existing-load sensitivity case is a stricter transparency test, not a description of PJM's current rule.

Check it yourself

Do not take our word for it, or anyone's. Look at the primary sources: PJM's load forecast and planning materials at pjm.com, the filed record and public comment pages at the State Corporation Commission, and read Valley Link’s own description of the Joshua Falls–Yeat project.If you find a public source we should consider, send a general suggestion. Please do not use the form to send private property records or sensitive locations.

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