Hampton Roads Transmission Projects

Electrical demand in the Hampton Roads area is projected to increase by more than 20 percent by summer 2020. This growth will place a challenge on the existing electrical grid, and create the potential for overloads and violations of North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards. Recently announced plans for retirement of local generation facilities have accelerated the need for new transmission lines to be built in the region.

In an update of its Integrated Resource Plan filed Sept. 1, 2011 with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC), Dominion said it expects total electricity demand to increase by nearly 30 percent by 2026, even after conservation measures are implemented. Along with new generation, retrofitting and repowering existing units and conservation initiatives, the update includes plans to erect new transmission lines and upgrade others. Because of upcoming changes in federal environmental regulations, including those currently in draft form, Dominion also incorporated in the Plan the following likely actions:

• The coal-fired Chesapeake Energy Center in Chesapeake, Va., would likely close by 2016. Two of the four units are expected to be shut down by 2015 and the remaining two units likely would be shut down a year later.
  • Dominion is currently evaluating transmission solutions to address this closure. Please check back here for future updates.
    
• One coal-fired unit at the Yorktown Power Station in Yorktown, Va., would likely close by 2015 and a second coal-fired unit would likely be converted to natural gas.
  • Dominion has recently announced a new transmission project to address this closure.