Fauquier County is under incredible pressure from energy infrastructure facilities to serve data center growth in Northern Virginia and from data center development projects within its own borders. Below is information about the proposed data center developments, an update on the new transmission line threat and PEC’s recommendation going forward.
Existing and Anticipated Data Center Developments
Currently operating in Fauquier County are an 80,000-square-foot OVH Cloud data center in Vint Hill and the Warrenton Training Center data center, with an unknown square footage. Approved, but not yet built, are the 220,000-square-foot Amazon data center in Warrenton on Blackwell Road and the 1,286,000-square-foot Remington Technology Park.
In addition, 1.3 million square feet of data center development is allowed “by-right” in the Vint Hill Planned Commercial Industrial District (PCID). “By-right” means that this development is permitted without any additional public hearings or review by the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors.
And although the Remington Technology Park, approved in 2018, has not been constructed yet, a proposal to subdivide the site into four separate parcels is anticipated. This proposal would allow the end user to purchase and develop the site in part or in phases.
These existing and anticipated data center developments already require at least five new substations, as well as new and upgraded transmission lines with exact routes to be determined. Dominion Energy plans to serve the Amazon data center on Blackwell Road from an underground distribution line and off-site substation in the County, but the location of the substation is still unknown. Meanwhile, an appeal to the Warrenton Board of Zoning Appeals and ongoing litigation casts uncertainty on the status of the proposal.
Even with all this development in the pipeline, a number of additional projects have been proposed in Remington and Catlett that would add an 6 million more square feet of data center space. Each project would require a rezoning from the existing residential, industrial or agricultural zoning to Business Park (BP) District zoning. These rezoning proposals do require a public process, and the Board of Supervisors has the discretion to approve or deny them. Frankly, Fauquier County already has enough planned data center space in the pipeline, and with the largest one already approved near the small Town of Remington, PEC fears that any additional approvals there risk overwhelming the town with industrial infrastructure.
Proposed Developments Target Southern Fauquier
Southern Fauquier has long been a crossroads of transmission lines, power generation and other industrial uses in the County. This makes it very attractive for data center development, but more industrial development may not be what residents in Southern Fauquier want to see.
The data center developments proposed in the County are hyperscale facilities, which are massive, windowless concrete buildings that can bring potential noise and electrical infrastructure such as substations and transmission lines. They are also often out of scale with existing communities and fenced with cameras, security guards, and guard gates. When placed near small-scale residential and commercial areas, they can undermine plans for a walkable, connected community that encourages the types of economic development that promotes tourism and directly serves residents. In addition, the construction noise and traffic, which can span years depending on the size and phasing of the site development, have caused some people to want to leave their homes.
We’ve heard many arguments in favor of data centers in the southern part of the County where transmission infrastructure and generation sources already exist. However, Dominion’s energy load projections and planned upgrades demonstrate that existing transmission lines and power generated from existing energy facilities are already maxed out. This includes the 513-megawatt Marsh Run natural gas facility, the 608-megawatt Remington natural gas peaking plant, and the 20-megawatt Dominion solar facility. New transmission lines, line upgrades and generation will be required to serve these proposed data centers if approved.
In addition, as grid strain continues to delay power connection for data centers, the industry is seeking alternatives to traditional electrical service, such as nuclear power from existing (and even dormant) facilities, on-site natural gas generation or on-site small modular nuclear reactors (SMR). The most likely of these to see development in the short term is on-site gas generation, which could bring new concerns, including air quality and safety and environmental impacts.
Regionally, we’re concerned with the scale of these facilities and their cumulative impact on the electrical grid and on air quality. If approved, the four proposed rezonings in Fauquier County would alone at least double the expected data center electricity load and would equate to the energy needed to power more than 500,000 homes, far exceeding the current energy demand of the County.
Fauquier’s Data Center Alley?
Southern Fauquier has already been disproportionately burdened with energy infrastructure and it is important for this not to be used to justify adding more. Remington has been engaged in a multi-year effort to encourage walkability, tourism and investment in local business with the hopes of becoming a destination in the County. The three currently active data center proposals in Remington could eclipse the Town and all plans for revitalization, tourism and commercial growth, if approved. It is difficult to imagine how large industrial footprints, noise, years of construction traffic, and a mess of substations and transmission lines will help encourage people to visit the Town of Remington and support the growth of small-scale businesses that thrive on foot traffic and tourism.
With the exception of a few acres, all of the proposed data center sites in Remington are proposed within the Tinpot Run catchment basin. We are deeply concerned that the construction impacts of four major industrial facilities and an additional six million square feet of impervious surface will worsen the flooding of Tinpot Run that Remington has historically experienced and will harm the Town’s ongoing efforts to address it. While the stormwater management on data center sites required by State Code will address 10-year, 24-hour rainfall events, we worry that they will not be able to accommodate larger rainfall events that are happening on a more regular basis. Because flat topography restricts flows at Tinpot Run’s confluence with the Rappahannock River, the two water bodies could back up into the Town of Remington during these larger rainfall events. The updated FEMA Flood Zone Map indicates that about 175 houses are now within the Tinpot Run Flood Zone. More homes could be at risk if flood conditions worsen.
The County has accepted all three application submissions, which starts the 100-day timeline from the date of acceptance for a Planning Commissionpublic hearing and a one-year timeline from the date of acceptance for a Board of Supervisors public hearing. Although some outstanding issues identified by staff may hold up the public hearings, the first application could come to the Planning Commission as early as November. We’ve provided more details on each application below:
Convergent Technology Park, Remington
Convergent VA, LLC is proposing a 1.07-million-square-foot data center project consisting of four buildings, each at least 65 feet tall. The project is proposed at the gateway to the Town of Remington on James Madison Highway and is a revival of a prior 2019 proposal that PEC opposed because of its proximity and impacts to the Town of Remington, including its likelihood to worsen flooding in the Town. Convergent is unable to tap into the 500-kilovolt line that runs through the southern portion of the site, and must run underground lines to an off-site substation in Remington to connect to the grid. Convergent made its first submission to the County in June, and the County accepted the application on August 20. It is now out for agency review.
Gigaland, Remington
Data center developer Gigaland has proposed 2.8 million square feet of data center development across 10 buildings, each one at least 65-feet tall, on approximately 200 acres southeast of Remington Technology Park across Lucky Hill Road. Three on-site substations are proposed to serve the site. If approved, this would be the largest data center campus in the County by far. In addition to the proposed rezoning, the County would have to approve a comprehensive plan amendment to bring approximately 50 acres of the site into the County Service District in order for Gigaland to develop the property as currently planned. County staff have made their first round of comments on the application, though some outstanding issues remain. With an official acceptance date of July 30, the application could be heard by the Planning Commission as early as November.
SAMX, Remington
The SAMX Data Center proposal is on 55 acres adjoining the Remington Technology Park site to the north. The developers filed a rezoning application last year for approximately one million square feet of data center development comprised of two 45-foot-tall buildings and an on-site substation. The County submitted comments that identify concerns about the plan’s consistency with proffers offered, uncertainties around electrical service to the site and the proposed use of groundwater. SAMX is in the process of responding to County comments, and has filed for an extension beyond the County’s one-year deadline to rule on the application.
The Catlett Project, Catlett (withdrawn July 2024)
In addition to the three hyperscale data centers proposed in Remington, and detailed above, the County accepted a fourth hyperscale facility application for Catlett, before it was withdrawn in July. Although the application has been closed, PEC and residents will remain vigilant as the developers continue to weigh their options.
The request filed in 2023 was to rezone over 60 acres in Catlett from Industrial Park (I-1) to BP for a 1.4-million-square-foot data center campus. Three different build-out options were proposed with three to five buildings, each 45–65 feet tall. It would have necessitated an on-site substation and an almost three-mile transmission line running into Prince William County along a route yet to be determined. Throughout the review process, County staff identified issues with the proposal, including the lack of a single-site layout, uncertainties around power, inconsistencies in the application and concerns about the request for additional building height. Echoing staff concerns, PEC’s partners Protect Catlett, Citizens for Fauquier County, and Protect Fauquier submitted pages of thoughtful public comment, demonstrating that the proposal is ill-conceived, which influenced the applicant’s decision to withdraw the application.
New Transmission Line Threats
Serving the exponential data center growth in Northern Virginia requires building transmission infrastructure to bring in more power from generation sources further west. Fauquier’s location between the core Northern Virginia data center market and areas of generation place it at risk of bearing the brunt of the impacts of this infrastructure build out. As such, multiple entities (e.g. Dominion Energy, the federal government, PJM) have proposed several new transmission lines and transmission line upgrades routed through Fauquier County.
National Interest Transmission Corridors
The latest transmission proposal is the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC), a federal designation that would take away local control and allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to permit lines within the corridor that the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has denied or taken more than a year to act on. One small segment of the proposed NIETC Mid-Atlantic corridor runs into Fauquier County along an existing line that ends near Fiery Run. There is no explanation given for this corridor, which seems to end just short of the large data center areas of Loudoun and Prince William County, indicating that this small segment may set the stage for new transmission routes in Fauquier County to serve continued data center growth in Loudoun and Prince William counties.
PEC and our partners at Protect Fauquier, Citizens for Fauquier County, and Protect Catlett made a great effort to submit public comments and shed light on the inadequate public process. The Fauquier County Board of Supervisors also weighed in with the Department of Energy during the NIETC comment period, expressing similar concern that the designation would encourage additional transmission lines through Fauquier County. The process now moves onto Phase 3, which DOE says will include community engagement activities and any required environmental review.
Morrisville Line Upgrade
In April 2024, Dominion announced that it will no longer be submitting its proposal for the Morrisville line upgrade this summer. The utility has also canceled all outreach meetings planned to inform the community about the line upgrade, citing right-of-way limitations and the need for additional evaluation of electrical and construction alternatives. It is not entirely clear why Dominion has paused the project, but the brief presentation by Dominion announcing postponement focused on the explosive data center growth that has continued in the region, which indicates we might see a larger alternative project with even more capacity proposed.
Zoning Text Amendment for Substations
Anticipating the unknown impacts of energy transmission infrastructure, the Board of Supervisors recently approved a zoning text amendment removing the by-right allowance for substations in the Business Park and all Industrial zoning districts, with the exception of the substation required to serve the approved Remington Technology Park. PEC and our partners supported this amendment and are pleased to see the County taking proactive measures to evaluate and mitigate the impacts of infrastructure build out within Fauquier.
New Remington Substations
Earlier this month, during the regional grid operator PJM’s Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee meeting Dominion Energy requested two new substation locations in Remington to serve a data center complex in Fauquier County. Both substations appear to be located on the Gigaland property and could be the two substations needed to serve the proposed buildout with 10 buildings needing over 400 megawatts. This submission is usually the first step in new transmission line projects. PEC and our partners will continue to track and attend meetings of PJM’s Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee, Dominion Energy, and the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) where new energy infrastructure projects will be announced.
Some have claimed that the need for this additional energy infrastructure is inevitable and have used it to justify attracting more data center development to Fauquier County. However, the energy demands of just one hyperscale data center are often large enough to require a dedicated transmission line and substation and grid strain is already delaying the build out of hyperscale data centers. Because of this, the entire capacity of a single transmission line proposal could very well be spoken for before it’s even built, making it unavailable to support any additional data center development. New data centers that are proposed in anticipation of new transmission routes are likely just adding to this existing problem and necessitating more transmission lines and upgrades.
The Way Forward
In December 2023, Fauquier County passed a data center policy discouraging data center development outside of service districts, away from existing infrastructure and on properties not currently zoned for data center development. The intent of the policy is to provide a framework to plan for the growth of the industry and protect the County from its worst impacts. Although the policy limits data center development to the two zoning districts that currently allow them, legally, the County still has to consider any rezoning applications for data centers throughout Fauquier. Now the policy is being put to the test. Fauquier County’s four proposed rezonings — with the Catlett project located almost three miles from an existing transmission line, Gigaland requesting to expand the service district, the Convergent proposal directly adjoining residences and the Town of Remington, and SAMX’s numerous unresolved issues with their application — are clearly inconsistent with the intent of this policy.
On top of the community impacts of data centers, the state still has no framework for managing the statewide impacts of the growing energy demands of this industry. If Virginia continues to allow data center load demand to grow unchecked, we will continue to experience outsized demand for transmission lines and proposals to bring energy to areas of demand from the utility companies, regional grid operators and the Federal Government.
As the Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition works to achieve reforms in Richmond, we believe that Fauquier County must limit the number of local approvals and, for now, build out only what is permitted by-right and already approved in the County. By doing this, we can still realize the benefits of tens of millions in anticipated new tax revenue, plan for the growth of the industry in the County comprehensively, and better manage the community and environmental impacts of each facility and its required electrical infrastructure. However, we believe the additional tax revenue and potential proffers that could come from the four currently proposed rezonings is not worth the cost to Fauquier’s existing and potential tourism economy, already-strained electric grid and quality of life in the Town of Remington and the village of Catlett.
We urge you to write to the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors or speak at the public hearings for each rezoning on behalf of better planning for the growth of data centers incrementally. We will be closely tracking each application and notifying the community when public hearings will be held.
Questions? Please feel free to reach out to Kevin Kask at [email protected].