Goochland Posts Community Meeting Notices for Joshua Falls to Yeat 765 kV

Goochland County posted a county-level notice on March 4, 2026, highlighting community meeting opportunities for the Valley Link Transmission Line project and urging residents to participate. The notice lists two virtual meetings at noon on March 5 and March 16 and an in-person open house set for Monday, March 23, 5:30–7:30 p.m., at the Central High Cultural and Education Complex, 2748 Dogtown Road, Goochland, VA 23063, and states plainly, "Goochland County does not have a role in the project’s routing or permitting."

Valley Link identifies the proposal on its project page as the "Joshua Falls to Yeat 765kV Electric Transmission Line Project." Project partners named in county and project materials include Dominion Energy, Transource, and FirstEnergy Transmission; Piedmont Environmental Council materials note Transource involves American Electric Power and that AEP operates a large 765 kV network that currently ends at Joshua Falls near Lynchburg. Project materials locate the line between the existing Joshua Falls substation in Campbell County and a proposed new substation near Richardsville in Culpeper County, identified on project maps as Yeat.

Regulatory milestones remain central to the schedule. Local reporting and project documents note that "The project was approved in 2025 by PJM, the regional organization that manages the electrical grid in Virginia and a dozen other states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, but will require final approval by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC)." Project outreach and Piedmont Environmental Council guidance say Valley Link must meet SCC guidelines for large-scale utility projects before filing; Valley Link plans to seek a certificate of public convenience and necessity with the SCC in Summer 2026, and follow-up community meetings are scheduled for June 2026 to review route adjustments.

Valley Link’s outreach hub lists recordings, presentations, and downloadable materials including Landowner’s Outreach Letters in English and Spanish and a press release announcing a series of ten open houses plus two virtual meetings. The project site offers an interactive map with parcel delineations and a GeoVoice tool for submitting route concerns; project contact options include phone (855) 617-6107 and email JF2Y@vltransmission.com. The project site also states, "Valley Link is committed to engaging with communities along the way. Extensive outreach with residents, local governments and other stakeholders will help inform project decisions, including how best to avoid or minimize potential impacts."

Neighboring counties are already taking formal positions. Louisa County reported March 4 that "Valley Link will not share data for the County to add the potential routes to our GIS system at this time. However, Valley Link has added parcel delineations to their online maps." Louisa’s Board of Supervisors approved a March 2 motion to develop a resolution opposing overhead lines, and Louisa is hosting open houses March 12, 3:30–7:30 p.m., and March 26, 5:30–7:30 p.m., at the Betty J. Queen Center, 522 Industrial Drive, Louisa, VA 23093.

Local materials flag possible local impacts: Goochland notices say "There are a couple route corridor scenarios that may route the project through Goochland in the western part of the County in District 1." Advocacy groups have framed the technical rationale: the Piedmont Environmental Council wrote, "The Joshua Falls-Yeat line would plunge this 765 kV network further into Virginia, providing a new route for power to reach Dominion’s growing queue of data centers." With PJM approval in hand but SCC review still required, residents in Goochland and neighboring counties should find project maps, meeting recordings, and comment tools on the Valley Link project page and plan to raise route-specific questions at the listed virtual and in-person sessions.