LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. - Severe weather and a massive surge in data centers are putting pressure on our local power grid.
What we know:
FOX 5's Tisha Lewis is getting a behind-the-scenes look at the upgrades Dominion Energy is making to try to prevent outages.
FOX 5 was the only television crew on site as East Marshall Street in Middleburg was cordoned off and transformed into a high-stakes work site. Dominion Energy crews updated an electrical power system in Loudoun County to combat severe weather and curb power outages.
"Being out in the country, you can't gauge that. If you're in a more populated area, it seems to get fixed a lot quicker, but when you're out in the country, they'll last a little bit longer and that's why a lot of us have generators, so we're not dependent on the electric company," said Debora Stehly, a Middleburg resident.
Two feet below ground, work is underway to restore and protect lines from the elements.
"The longest outage that I've experienced since I've been living here is eight hours at the most," said Stehly.
"Customers that qualify for the program, they suffer 8.6 hours during an outage, and we have reduced that to 2-3 minutes," said Mikela Spriggs-Massenburg, an Electrical District Marketing & Communications Coordinator of Grid Resiliency & Underground for Dominion Energy.
FOX 5 has learned over the last three years, all across northern Virginia has seen a nearly 60% improvement in how long customers are without power. Even so, a long-time Middleburg resident Patience Frenzel blames the booming data center campuses for increased blackouts and more.
"I think the data centers have a lot to do with it, and I wish that we didn't have them," said Frenzel.
Frenzel also lives in Middleburg.
"I'm not so sure about the outages, but I have noticed that compared to last year, my bill is up," said Jessica Berumen, another Middleburg resident.
We asked Dominion about concerns that data centers are impacting the power grid.
"The goal is to reduce repair locations during major outages and improve the grid resiliency so that impacts all customers across the board, even our high-powered customers, including data centers," said Spriggs-Massenburg.
In Loudoun County alone, crews have already storm-proofed more than 14 miles of main power lines, and they're working on 63 more. Dominion says the goal is to upgrade about a thousand miles of lines in the system. They've finished about 400 miles so far.
FOX 5 has learned the goal is to strengthen infrastructure, move power lines underground and more to improve reliability. Thirty of these projects are underway across northern Virginia, including six in Loudoun County.
The Source: Information in this article is from Dominion Energy.