Northern Virginia data center boom strains the grid (2019-2023)
Data center construction in Loudoun and Prince William counties drove Dominion Energy's load forecasts sharply upward, forcing the utility to plan new transmission lines and substations to keep pace. The buildout made Northern Virginia the world's largest data center market.
Dominion secured rate increases to fund grid expansion, with costs spread across its customer base.
The episode showed how quickly concentrated data center demand can strain a regional grid and became a cautionary tale for other states courting data centers.
Indiana's large-load law is a direct response to that lesson: force the data center to pay for the infrastructure it triggers.
