You know that Dominion must be getting nervous when it runs full-page ads in the Richmond newspaper about a controversy in Northern Virginia. But the high-voltage transmission line that the electric power company wants to run through the northern Virginia piedmont is running into some serious flack. Here are the arguments (quoted verbatim) that Dominion published today in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Fact 1: The need for additional electricity supplies for Northern Virginia is undeniable. … The number of households in the region is projected to have growth by 27% between 2000 and 2010. As a result, demand for electricity in Northern Virginia has grown by a staggering 40% over the last 10 years. …
Fact 2: Dominion is working hard to find a route that minimizes the impact of the new line. …
Fact 3: Energy conservation is important, but it can’t replace the need for a new transmission line. Dominion has examined all viable alternatives. Even the best energy conservation programs in place in the United States would not come close to reducing demand enough to fill the gap. …
Fact 4: The proposed tranmission line is being built to ensure a reliable source of electric power for Northern Virginia. …
Fact 5: The new transmission line will improve access to low-cost power. …
Fact 6: Adding enough new generation capacity in Northern Virginia is not feasible. Dominion is working on places for new generating facilities in the state, but adding enough generation in Northern Virginia to eliminate the need for the new transmission line is not financially or operationally practical.
Fact 7. Without a new transmission line, the prospect of rolling blackouts by 2001 is very real. …
Let us concede that the threat is very real and that rolling blackouts in Northern Virginia is a prospect altogether be avoided. Power outages would bring economic expansion in Virginia’s economic dynamo to a screeching halt. An uninterrupted supply is perhaps the single-most critical piece of criteria for Information Technology companies. Any IT company would seriously think twice before expanding in a blackout-prone region.
However, I would ask several sets of questions.
Question 1: electricity consumption is increasing considerably faster than the population. Why? Are households using more electricity, perhaps to provide HVAC to bigger houses? Or are businesses consuming more? If the increase is coming from businesses, to what extent can an emerging generation of energy-efficient microchips offset future increases within the next three to five years? The ad doesn’t say.
Question 2: What energy conservation alternatives has Dominion examined? Has it looked at the possibility of incentivizing businesses and homeowners to conserve energy by creating rate structures that shift demand to off-peak seasons and off-peak periods of the day? Has it examined the option of expanding “net metering,” which allows micro power producers to sell surplus electricity back into the grid? The ad is silent.
Question 3: In what way is adding new capacity within Northern Virginia “not feasible?” Is there a lack of appropriate sites? Are the fuel costs too high? Does Dominion anticipate an intense Not-In-My-Back-Yard response to any proposal to build a major facility in the region? The ad offers no clue.
Dominion may have perfectly reasonable answers to these questions — and if I can uncover them, I will post them on this blog. But right now Dominion is asking us to take their word on blind faith. And given the lack of specitivity to their arguments, that’s hard to do.