Undergrounding Wires Can Reduce Outages

                As people in some parts of Eastern Fairfax County continue to recover from May 16th’s devastating storms that left approximately 200,000 customers without power for over two days and tragically claimed two lives, we are once again confronted with a stark reality: our electrical infrastructure remains vulnerable to nature's wrath and we are extremely dependent on electricity for our quality of life.

                 I have received dozens of requests for underground utilities in the wake of this storm.  I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that the Virginia General Assembly has already authorized some limited undergrounding of outdoor electrical [only? other?] wiring and even authorized a special program for Fairfax County.  The bad news is that our action will never be enough and there continue to be many obstacles to robust, widespread undergrounding. For example, Fairfax County has chosen not to take advantage of the program the General Assembly has made available.

                 In Virginia, electric power is mostly provided by utilities like Dominion Energy that have a monopoly, but provide services subject to oversight by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) and the state legislature to ensure that they do not abuse this monopoly power.  One study of universal undergrounding of all electric utilities across the Commonwealth found the cost would exceed $150 billion.

                 In 2011-2012, Dominion Energy studied the feasibility of undergrounding residential electrical tap or feeder lines and the cost and the reliability improvements that could be generated.  After the study, the General Assembly authorized Dominion Energy to spend a limited percentage of their annual revenues on undergrounding residential feeder lines, but not distribution or transmission lines which are larger and exponentially more expensive to bury. 
This program requires Dominion to analyze a decade of power outage data and to prioritize burying lines that are the most vulnerable to outages.  By prioritizing funds, this approach reduces some future outages, allows workers to focus on other problems and to restore the system to full operation more quickly.

               We prohibited utilities from spending more than $20,000 per customer served directly by or downline of the converted lines and no more than $750,000 per mile for conversion to underground, exclusive of financing costs.  The total anticipated expenditure is approximately $2 billion and each project is reviewed by the SCC to ensure compliance with state law and Virginia’s longstanding policy of minimizing electrical utility rates.

Conversions Have Reduced Outage Times by 50 Percent

               Since adoption, the program has converted 7,300 neighborhood feeder or "tap lines” totaling approximately 2,480 miles of underground power infrastructure of what will eventually likely be up to 4,000 miles of overhead tap lines.  Much of this has been in Fairfax County.  These conversions are estimated to reduce outage times by 50 percent.

               According to Dominion's most recent figures, the Strategic Underground Program has prevented an estimated 3,610 outage events every year. Even more impressive is the dramatic reduction in the system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) for customers in converted zones, from a pre-conversion SAIDI of 556 minutes to just 2.25 minutes after undergrounding.  This represents a 99.6 percent improvement in outage duration.

               For communities that have experienced major storms, the benefits are particularly evident, with Dominion reporting a 20-30 percent reduction in total restoration time following severe weather events where restoration would typically exceed 72 hours. This means faster recovery for all customers across the grid, even those whose lines remain above ground, as crews can focus on other affected areas rather than dealing with the most chronically-vulnerable sections.

              Virginians should understand that Dominion will only move forward with eligible programs if all homeowners on the undergrounding project agree to modify their existing easements and transformer placements to alleviate the need for time-consuming and expensive condemnation proceedings.  In addition, the projects cannot include cable or telephone lines because those companies have no means to recover costs from ratepayers since they are unregulated, non-mandatory utilities. 

               In 2019, I carried legislation which allowed Fairfax County to adopt a tax of up to $1 per month per household to fund burying distribution lines as long as the planned U.S. 1 Bus Rapid Transit Project would be the first recipient of funds.  Commendably, Prince William County has buried distribution lines on their entire 14-mile stretch of U.S. 1.  It was my hope this program would be used to improve reliability in our community, reduce project damage and enhance the beauty of the U.S. 1 Corridor, but the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has not utilized this authority.

               Going forward, if underground electricity lines are important for your community, people need to cooperate with Dominion if the company determines that your neighborhood is eligible.  In the meantime, I will continue to explore ways to make our electrical infrastructure more resilient as climate changes continues to make the weather more volatile and bring on more frequent and more severe storms.

               If you have any comments or questions, please reach out to me at scott@scottsurovell.org.

Youngkin Fails to Collaborate

         Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin completed action on the state budget and legislation from the General Assembly after we took action on his first round of proposed amendments and vetoes. The actions bring a conclusion to four years of an usual style of dealing with the General Assembly and a disappointing end to this budget cycle. 

        Governor Youngkin vetoed an additional 38 bills bringing this four-year total to 437 vetoes which broke the prior record of Governor McAuliffe by 317. None of Governor Youngkin’s budget vetoes were discussed with the General Assembly in advance and the pure number of vetoes and amendments was unprecedented. Prior governors such as Mark Warner and Tim Kaine governed with legislatures controlled by the other party and typically vetoed less than 10 bills per session.

        This behavior is contrary to the Governor’s campaign promises to work towards bipartisan compromise. For example, he vetoed many bills that passed unanimously and one of my procedural cleanup bills that received just two negative votes after four committee hearings and six floor sessions. Most of these vetoes came with no notice or dialogue prior to announcement.

        The Governor also made 37 “line item vetoes” to our state budget and claimed it was necessary because the Commonwealth needs to reduce spending and reserve funds due to economic uncertainty. While I appreciate the Governor’s recognition that the Trump Administration has created extraordinary risk to the Virginia economy, his line item vetoes were unusual in many respects.

        First, the Governor vetoed $900 million of capital spending – most of which he proposed in his December budget. This is the second year that Governor Youngkin has rejected budget proposals that he initially proposed. It is impossible to cooperate with someone who cannot agree with his own proposals. 

        Second, the Commonwealth currently has the largest combined revenue reserves we have ever held in the history of the Commonwealth — $4 billion. These are a combination of constitutionally required “Rainy Day Fund” deposits and a General Assembly established revenue reserve fund we created consistent with our conservative budgeting which maintains our triple A bond status that keeps borrowing costs low for taxpayers.

        He also gave no notice that he wanted to cut this spending and engaged in no dialogue. In addition, construction spending is exactly what economists recommend in economic downturns because of the broad impact it has on various sectors. The Trump Administration’s tariffs are also likely to make these projects more expensive if the Commonwealth delays them even six months. 

        The Governor also cut much needed and merited spending including a new first time homebuyer program and renter’s assistance to help young people with affordable housing. 

        Governor Youngkin also rejected our proposal to lower the body mass index required to obtain new weight loss drug regimes funded by Medicaid. The General Assembly proposed a BMI of 35 or more or 30 if someone has diabetes. A BMI of 30/35 equals about 200/235 lbs. for a 5’10” person. His rejection of the lower BMI proposal saves taxpayers only $7 million while forfeiting $40 million in federal matching funds, and will cost taxpayers millions more in obesity-related healthcare expenses.. He also vetoed additional investments in Geriatric and Dementia services for elderly in nursing homes. 

        We also saw line item vetoes for community violence reduction grants and over $20 million towards our $400 million state park deferred maintenance needs. He also vetoed tens of millions in storm water mitigation, Hurricane Helene relief money, and environmental education programs.

        Other than actions we will likely have to take this fall to triage The Trump Administration’s proposed massive cuts to Medicaid, education funding and climate change policy, this was Governor Youngkin’s last chance to reach bipartisan compromise in our regular budget cycle before his term ends. He has continued to attempt to govern as a partisan candidate and make decisions based on his next Republican primary or act unilaterally like a business executive rather than work with the legislative branch of government to reach consensus. I am hopeful our next Governor will not make the same choice.