Electric and water capital projects at several industrial parks in the Danville-Pittsylvania County area are underway, and so is community outreach programming for ratepayers. The Danville Utilities Commission will hear two presentations on these topics during its regular meeting at 4 p.m. Monday.
Jason Grey, director of utilities for the city, will present updates on capital projects in the area. Mauricio Rodriguez, utilities energy advisor, will present information on the customer outreach he has been doing over the past several months with customers who experienced high consumption during the winter months, according to the staff report in the meeting agenda packet.
Grey’s presentation includes four water projects at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill.
The first, called the Phase 3 water main project, was completed in March. It involved installing 10,000 feet of 20-inch pipe to serve as the water main. The project began in October and stretches from the railroad tracks at Berry Hill Road to Oak Hill Road at the Transco pipeline.
The second project, the Oak Hill water main, began in March and is expected to be completed by July. It will involve 2,000 feet of 20-inch pipe, crossing the Transco pipeline and the future Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate pipeline.
The third project at Berry Hill is the Trotter’s Creek water main. The city has applied for a $5 million Economic Development Administration grant to install 80,000 feet of 20-inch water main from Oak Hill Road to Berry Hill Road following Trotter’s Creek.
The city will know in May if it received the award, according to a presentation in the agenda packet.
The final project is a 1.5 million-gallon ground storage tank at Oak Hill. Construction began in November and is scheduled to be complete in October.
Grey will also present a new substation that will be built at the jointly owned Cyber Park, scheduled to be completed in May 2026. The project is “due to growth in Cyber Park-substation capacity,” according to the presentation.
This project will replace existing 1970s substation equipment and expand capacity from 25 MVA (megavolt-amperes) to 50 MVA.
The second portion of the presentation will discuss customer outreach efforts regarding electricity bills. Over 3,600 letters were sent to residential customers who used over 3,000 kWh in a single month, according to the presentation.
This threshold was chosen because about 90% of Danville’s residential customers use less than 3,000 kWh in a month.
The outreach is meant to increase awareness of the city’s energy advising services.
The city also conducted 134 energy analyses. This includes gathering data about a home, like square footage and type of heating and cooling equipment used, determining the baseload, or the minimum amount of electricity required to meet needs, and comparing monthly consumption and reviewing hourly consumption.
A public hearing will follow the presentation.
This is the only meeting in Danville this week. There are no meetings scheduled in Pittsylvania County this week.
