!! TWO NEW HVAC Transmissions Lines PROPOSED a 500kV AND a 765kV !!

First Energy Will Have Survey and Drilling Crews Out In Frederick County, Loudoun County and Jefferson County Within The Next Couple Of  Weeks 

Know Your Property Rights   /  Ensure you have a no trespassing sign on your property. 

At this time, neither Valley Link nor NextERA have any easements and do not have the right to enter private property without permission. 

First Energy / Potomac Edison / AEP do own easements along the route, deeds are specific to the property. There are multiple transmission projects in the works and there are multiple variants in the deeds. 

You can (politely) challenge the subcontractor's authority to access the easement for their stated activities and ask them to leave and come back with documentation.    

If there is no easement on your property you do not have to allow access to your land at all.

If there is an easement on your property :  Ensure you have the easement deed and understand what is allowed. In general you will want to verify the easement language allows the work they plan on performing for the transmission company they are working for. Also that they will be marking the easement and that all work will be done within in the easement. Usually the easements specify vegetation management and allow maintenance activities. Drilling bore holes is not generally a maintenance activity, nor is surveying outside the easement. The easement deed also names the company owning the easement and the width of the easement.

Filing / Sending / Handing Out No Trespassing Notices

1) Create a Trespass Notice

If you have an easement on your property you will want to write a letter to describe what is allowed and what is not allowed per your deed. See the sample and modify it appropriate to your property, deed and the work they have stated they want to do. 

If there is no easement on your property (or the transmission company is not the one on the deed), fill out and print multiple copies of the standard no trespassing notice from the Sheriff's office for your county.

• Loudoun County Sheriff's office Trespass Notice  
• Loudoun County Trespass Notification Info 
• Frederick County Trespass Notice

2) Print multiple copies of the filled out form or your letter.

3) Send the letter certified US Mail with a return receipt to the point of contact on the letter you received in the mail, and/or on your door and/or the point of contact obtained from the crew that attempted to access your property.  

4) Retain a copy with the return receipt for your records which can be presented to a deputy if a violation occurs. 

5) Keep copies handy and hand the letter to the individuals that stop by. 

If you have questions, consult a property attorney. 

Questions to ask if a subcontractor is on your property: 

1. What transmission project is this for?  
2. What Company are you working for?
3. What transmission company hired your company (NextEra, Valley Link, FirstEnergy ...) ?
4. What are you planning on doing? 
5. Please provide documentation that the easement grants the activities,  described to the transmission developer you are working for. 
6. Ask for a business card and a contact card.

The  Frederick County, Virginia community of Ridgeway Estates has filed an injunction to  prohibit the Woodside Substation being built on the rural preservation  tract of their subdivision. 

Their subdivision has HOA covenants  precluding this level of development - which I was told would prevent  NextERA from putting a clothesline in front of their single family home.  The home owners unanimously voted to retain the covenants and refused  to waive them for NextERA's purposes. 

The Ridgeway Estates home owners  are contending the covanents were illegally waived to enable NextERA to  purchase the property for the substation. On top of that and in spite of  the fact that the application for the substation puts industrial  infrastructure within 40 feet of people's homes and over top of the deeded drain fields for two of the homes and the unified and vocal  opposition to the substation from residents at the planning commission  meeting and the Frederick County BOS meetings, the Frederick County  Planning Commission found the application to be "within substantial  accord" with the comprehensive plan. 

Accordingly,  the Ridgeway Estates homeowners have  filed an injunction against NextERA, the seller of the property (Joline  Orndoff and the Fairfield Farm of Frederick County LLC) and the  Frederick County Board Of Supervisors.

Winchester  Star Article:  https://www.winchesterstar.com/winchester_star/ridgeway-estates-residents-file-injunction-to-stop-substation/article_af3c4328-bc92-56c0-

Read More About the Woodside Substation

If you own property in Frederick County, Clarke County or Loudoun County, Virginia or Jefferson County, West VA that has an existing transmission line, find the original easement agreement and get a copy - including the plat.  

The easement deed should have been filed as part of your property deed.

Check the easement specifications these often include detailed descriptions of the following:

1. The electric company that owns the easement (First Energy, PEPCO, Dominion, Northern Virginia Power Company)
2. Dimensions: The specific length and width of the right-of-way (ROW). Transmission tower ROWs typically range from 50 to 500 feet depending on voltage and terrain. This may be specified as an  offset either side of a center line.
3. Infrastructure Details: The number, placement/location, height, and design of poles, towers, H-frames as well as the voltage carried.
4.  Access Rights: The utility's right to enter the property for construction, maintenance, and emergency repairs.
5. Vegetation Management: Explicit rights to trim or remove trees and brush within the ROW, and sometimes "danger trees" outside the primary area that could fall onto lines.

This is important information for you to have to verify the  transmission developer and their subcontractors actually have been granted the right to undertake the work they are proposing. 

The electric company has to abide by the legal specifications of the agreement that granted them that right-of-way across your property.  These are specific to the property.

Based on the deed, you may not have to allow drilling or surveying on the easement.  

You also may not have to accept different placement, height, voltage, number of lines and design of the transmission line without a new easement agreement and additional compensation.

Note:  Northern Virginia Power Company is not First Energy  Ask for the legal paper work to show the rights transferring to ... don't be snowed ... there would be paperwork 

Take a look at the legal arguments being made by  the property owners fighting the additional  500kV proposed to be added to their easements for the Brandon Shores Mitigation Project in Maryland.

If you have questions, consult a property attorney. 

The Gore-Doubs-GooseCreek Improvements project is not just one line!  The Gore-Doubs-GooseCreek application for a Maryland CPCN includes components of three separate transmission projects and will add TWO more 500kV lines.

The application includes:

1. A re-build of the existing 60 year old 500kV line previously approved to be completed for an in-service date of June  1, 2024. This was MD PSC Case No. 9669 and VA SCC Case PUR-2021-00276 both applications were submitted in 2021 and were approved. The rebuild would have increased the capacity of the existing line from  2,442 MVA to 4,330 MVA. The Virginia Application stated the re-build and re-conductoring cost was $8.9M and it was to replace "aging infrastructure that is at the end of its useful life". The line was installed in 1966,has never been re-conductored, pictures of corroding of the steel towers were included. This was a maintenance only re-build. The re-build application in 2021 did not list any NERC violations or reliability issues and stated that the re-build was projected to meet the energy demand through 2031.  The data center build out in Eastern Loudoun substantially increased in 2021 and consequently the demand  increased exponentially. The re-build project was later canceled by the companies. 
2. A 500kV line, Doubs-Aspen, to move the power from the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) line that ends at Doubs through Frederick and Montgomery counties and over the Potomac into Data Center Alley.   There are no substations in Maryland  along this line.
3. A 500kV line Woodside-Goose Creek, from the proposed new Woodside substation in Virginia that is  part of the 154 mile  Mid-Atlantic Reliability Link(MARL)/Gore -Doubs-GooseCreek line.  From the new  substation in Virginia  this segment continues through Virginia and West VA, over the Potomac into Maryland, bypassing Doubs, through Frederick and Montgomery counties in then crosses back over the Potomac into Data Center Alley. There are no substations in Maryland  along this line. (Read how the Woodside-Goose Creek line was re-routed into Maryland by Loudoun County)

Approval of this project assumes that both MPRP and MARL are also approved, because without MPRP and MARL there is no additional energy for the two new 500kV lines!

Notes from the application:

• Pg 3: The company is requesting a final order by December 20, 2027
• Pg 6: Additional authorizations: Frederick County Department of Permits and Inspections ... zoning types crossed in Frederick County include Resource Conservation and Agriculture. According to the Frederick County Zoning Code these zoning types require a special exception with a site development approval.
• Pg 7: "two sets of lattice structures supporting an existing 500kV line and two 230kV lines will be removed and replaced with three sets of steel structures that will support five transmission lines total (the existing lines plus two new 500kV lines)"
• Pg 13: "Potomac Edison plans to utilize self-supporting steel poles as the support structures for the transmission line conductors. Based on preliminary engineering, Potomac Edison anticipates using structure heights ranging anywhere from approximately 185 feet to approximately 260 feet in height above ground level."
• Pg 17: " The project area is home to forest resources, including within the C&O Canal National Historical Park, Dickerson Conservation Area, Banner Park, Monocacy NRMA, Sugarloaf Mountain, and Owens Park."
• Pg 22: Lists alternatives submitted by the company and states that "PJM ultimately selected the Project subject to this CPCN submission."  This is not exactly true. PJM selected NextERA's proposal in December of 2023 then approved an Alternate MARL Re-Route in August of 2024 that re-routed the MARL line into Frederick and Montgomery counties in order to accommodate Loudoun County's routing preference. Then PJM assigned the new Woodside - Goose Creek segment to the company. The re-route added an additional $167M to the overall project cost to PJM rate payers.   The "project" in the application was not submitted as an individual  "project proposal"  to PJM.

This is not a small "improvement". This is a massive overbuild to supply the data center build-out in Loudoun County's Data Center Alley! 

In addition to the Special Exemption required by Frederick County to cross these Resource Conservation and Agriculture zones,  this application raises  serious property rights issues concerning the existing easements. 

Easements are deeded for a specific purpose, there are two existing easements one for each existing transmission line, the plats would show a center line and possibly the positions of the structures.  Easement rights are not unrestricted. Adding two additional 500kV lines on 3 parallel structures would be in conflict with the existing easement deeds and would contradict Maryland easement laws. This is known as "overburdening the servient estate".  Similar conflicts with easement laws are being raised by the property owners at No More Powerlines  who have been fighting MD PUC Case 9748. If you have a powerline easement  on your property, check your deed, read the laws cited by No More Powerlines and contact an attorney if you have questions. 

Intervene to protect your property rights! You can do this!

Both of these lines are 765kV on new 200' easements for the entire length. These are the biggest overhead HVAC structure and lines available.  This  represents a massive industrialization of rural and residential areas and a taking of private property that is entirely unacceptable.  Tell Dominion, bury these lines, underground HVDC just like the proposed Heritage - Mosby 185 mile all underground HVDC "backbone"

There will be two separate applications at the Virginia SCC.  Information on the VA SCC can be found on the Virginia Landowners Resources page.  See Underground HVDC, EMFs, Transmission ROW Info

 Valley Link North (Amos - Welton Springs - Rocky Point)

 This proposal is a 261-mile, 765kV transmission line on a new 200' easement for its entire length. Impacting  Frederick, Clarke and north western Loudoun Counties. 

Valley Link South (Joshua Falls - Yeat)

This proposal is a 115-mile, 765kV transmission line on a new 200' easement for its entire length (the biggest overhead HVAC structure and line available) from Joshua Falls in Campbell County, Virginia through to a new 765kV substation in Culpepper County, Virginia.  An expansion of the Joshua Falls substation in is also proposed.  New 200' easements will be taken for the entire length of the line. If built, approximately 2,788 acres of property will be taken for this line.

This line impacts:

• 8 counties in Virginia - Campbell, Appomattox, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Goochland, Louisa Culpepper and Orange

Valley Link South and SMRs In The News:  

• The Farmville Herald: Input sought 
• CBSNews:  Proposed Transmission Line Could Cross Multiple Area Counties
• Cardinal News: SMR planned for Campbell County 
• CRE Daily: Goochland Development Proposal Ignites Community Backlash

There will be two separate applications at the Virginia SCC.  Information on the VA SCC can be found on the Virginia Landowners Resources page.  See Underground HVDC, EMFs, Transmission ROW Info

The goal is no overhead HVAC lines on anyone's property!  Sign nothing without consulting a lawyer, 

115 miles of  transmission line and 0 easement agreements signed before the VA SCC Application is approved will send a strong message.

There will be two separate applications at the Virginia SCC.  Information on the VA SCC can be found on the Virginia Landowners Resources page.  See Underground HVDC, EMFs, Transmission ROW Info

We are encouraging our southern Virginia neighbors to form local opposition groups to inform their communities, oppose Valley Link South and either intervene in the Valley Link South case at the VA SCC either Pro-Se or with a lawyer.

Southern Valley Link opposition groups and contacts posted under Allies.

Watch out for Next ERA's influence peddlers, propagandists and front groups!   In a page taken right out of PATH's play book,  Next ERA  has  enlisted Craig Blair to shill for the MARL/Gore-Doubs -Goose Creek project.  He's the front man for the astro turf  "West Virginian's for Reliable and Affordable Power".  Their website even has a petition for you to add your thoughts to.

Maybe ask them how adding 8GW of new and expanding data centers to the grid in Northern Virginia makes West Virginia's  grid more reliable?   

How does paying over $440M (according to the May 29, 2025 report "West Virginia ratepayers footing the bill for infrastructure build out" by Cathy Kunkel  of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis) make energy more affordable for West Virginian?

As always,  be sure to tell them where they can stick their transmission lines!

Read more about NextERA's  astroturf group on the  StopPATHwv blog

Dominion's  proposal for a 185 mile entirely underground HVDC transmission line to bring energy from the south of Virginia to the data centers in Northern Virginia has made the short list.  

Read the  11/04/2025 PJM TEAC Reliability Item with Dominion's 185 mile all Underground HVDC proposal  for  bring energy from Southern Virginia to Data Center Alley 

Underground HVDC is obviously technically feasible.  Once again, PJM  referred to this as the "biggest bang for our buck" they explicitly cited that they would be able to use the existing easements and followed up with  all the technical reasons HVDC is the superior choice.  This is the PJM favorite,  even though the HVDC underground solution is 1.6x  times as expensive as the overhead 765kV proposals - $4.8B vs $2.6B. 

We happen to agree its the superior technology,  this is exactly that folks here have been saying, citing multiple recent papers on underground HVDC, readily available and linked on our own Underground HVDC page.   We have been pushing underground HVDC  for MARL/Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek and Valley Link for almost three years now - for all of the exact same technical reasons plus minimizing the impact to national parks, state parks, conservation easements and  6,000+ acres  of private property at risk to be taken.   

Read more About Underground HVDC 

Watch TenneT Energy laying HVDC underground cables  in the Netherlands  in 2015  - stay to the end and  see the  land above the buried HVDC being farmed!

Portfolio 275 1A, the underground HVDC project, proposed by our state energy monopoly Dominion, from an energy generation facility in Virginia to Dominion's customers in Loudoun County's data center alley will be paid for by the standard rate formula - 50% to the Dominion Zone and 50% spread across the rest of the rate payers in PJM.   This is the status quo.  Other states pay for Loudoun County's economic plan and the energy crisis Loudoun's unconstrained data center development has created.   No state other than Virginia will benefit from this line - but they will pay for it. 

Read StopPATHwv - West Virginian's to pay double to Bury The Line in Virginia

During the meeting, PJM also announced that the 765kV  Valley Link will have a voltage collapse by 2032 - the line they are aware the line they approved last year fails before it is even built.  Obviously the overhead HVAC solutions they have put in place thus far are deficient. Will they re-evaluate MARL/Gore Doubs-Goose Creek and Valley Link for a single underground HVDC solution?   Nah, they will keep pushing First Energy's 50 year old I765 corporate expansion plan.  PJM only selects from the pool of projects proposed - no one proposed an underground HVDC during either of those windows so we get multiple massive overhead lines. PJM "picked the best of the proposals that were submitted"  and they are standing by that decision, because they are always right .  Until one of the states denies the line(s) then they will be proven wrong and PJM will have to solicit bids for a new solution in a new window.

The 500kV MARL /Gore-Doubs-GooseCreek transmission line has an InService Date of 2032, the 765kV Valley Link transmission line has an InService Date of 2029!!

First Energy is already working on siting the 765kV transmission line!  I've heard they expect to have open houses in the Fall.   We don't know which transmission line they will be submitting an application to the Virginia SCC for first or the order they will be submitting the applications to the other states!.

Please watch this video of the installation of the Wyoming - Jackson Ferry 765kV  transmission line and send it to every elected official in Virginia that you know.  

These are the same structures as has been proposed for Valley link and is planned to go through Frederick County, VA  from  Gore through  Clear Brook and on through Clarke County into/through Jefferson County then the Neersville and the Lovettsville area. This is a direct result of the data center policy of  the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. 

The  Wyoming -Jackson Ferry 765kV transmission line is the only 765kV transmission line in Virginia.  It connects  West Virginia and Virginia and it is 90 miles long.  The permitting process for that transmission line began in 1991, the final approval and Environmental Impact Statement from the Forest Service was in 2002 and the line was not energized until June of 2006.

It took fifteen (15) years to site this transmission line that is 1/3 the length of the proposed Valley Link Transmission Line!

Watch the Video of the installation of the Wyoming - Jackson Ferry 765kV transmission line

Thank you to everyone who wrote letters and / or signed the petition objecting to the incentive rates, these were uploaded to FERC (Docket ER25-1633 Valley Link Incentive Rates). Note that our Virginia Governor Youngkin sent comments in support.

Valley Link had requested a 10.9% return on equity plus an additional .5% for its new membership in PJM Interconnection, for a total interest rate of 11.4%. The project’s $3B cost will be slowly depreciated over perhaps four decades and during that time consumers would pay 11.4% on the remaining balance every year, making the final cost to ratepayers double or triple Valley Link’s actual cost to build. 

The Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) in Ratebase incentive combined with the Hypothetical Capital Structure incentive will allow Valley Link to earn extra cash for its project before it is even constructed, all at consumer expense! Valley Link asked the Commission to make consumers “the bank” by loaning Valley Link money during the construction period and also requested that the Commission make consumers “the insurer of last resort” by granting the Abandoned Plant incentive that will charge consumers for Valley Link’s investment in the project even if it is never built! And the Valley Link Proposal had no cost caps! So they can come back every year and increase the cost of the project!

Although Chairman Christie dissented, FERC approved the incentive rates (Construction Work In Progress and Abandoned Plant Incentive) and the .5% for new membership in PJM. FERC set the ROE, formula rate, formula rate protocols and 60/40 Hypothetical Capital Structure incentive for hearing and settlement proceedings. I will be participating and post an update after settlement. 

Chairman Christie's dissent stated "another major problem is that FERC’s general practice in granting transmission incentives has become a “check-the-box” exercise. 

He continues "For example, I have stated that the Commission’s incentives policies—particularly the CWIP Incentive, which allows recovery of costs before a project has been put into service—run the risk of making consumers “the bank” for the transmission developer; but, unlike a real bank, which gets to charge interest for the money it loans, under our existing incentives policies the consumer not only effectively “loans” the money through the formula rates mechanism, but also pays the utility a profit, known as Return on Equity, or “ROE,” for the privilege of serving as the utility’s de facto lender. 

Further, just as the CWIP Incentive effectively makes consumers the bank for transmission developers, the Abandoned Plant Incentive effectively makes them the insurer of last resort as well. This incentive allows transmission developers to recover from consumers the costs of investments in projects that fail to materialize and thus do not benefit consumers. Just as consumers receive no interest for the money they effectively loan transmission developers through the CWIP Incentive, they receive no premiums for the insurance they provide through the Abandoned Plant Incentive if the project is never built. And if the CWIP Incentive is a de facto loan and the Abandoned Plant Incentive is de facto insurance—both provided by consumers—then the RTO participation adder, which increases the transmission owner’s ROE above the market cost of equity capital, is an involuntary gift from consumers. There has been and continues to be something really wrong with this picture."

If you have the time I highly recommend reading Chairman Christie's dissent 

Read More on the  Valley Link Rate Incentive order on the StopPATH WVA Blog