Loudoun County, the heart of Northern Virginia’s Data Center Alley, advanced a 12-month pause on new legislative data center and substation applications on September 16, 2026.

The 7-1-1 Board of Supervisors vote directs staff to draft a resolution for a later October vote, with a proposed retroactive effective date of September 15. Officials emphasized it is not a legal moratorium under Virginia’s Dillon Rule, but a temporary pause on board-level reviews while Phase 2 data-center standards are completed.

Board Chair Phyllis Randall described the affected pipeline as “a fairly small number,” noting the board has not voted on many legislative data-center items recently. The pause would apply to new filings requiring special exceptions or rezonings; already-permitted work and most administrative site plans would continue. Exceptions were added for grid-reliability substations or applications nearing statutory deadlines.

Bloomberg highlighted the move as part of a broader national wave of local slowdowns.

Loudoun’s Scale: 233 Buildings and a Large Pipeline

Loudoun County’s own data, as of March 1, 2026, shows approximately 233 existing data-center buildings totaling about 56.5 million square feet that are either built or in various stages of construction. The average existing building is roughly 234,000 square feet; newer permits since 2023 average closer to 339,000 square feet. The county issued building permits for more than 10 million square feet in 2025 alone.

An additional 35.7 million square feet is approved but not yet built (legislative approvals, approved site plans awaiting permits, and in-review site plans). County staff estimates this could represent about 115 more buildings, though not all projects will be completed. Separately, 21 legislative applications were in process as of March 1, representing about 56 buildings and 20.7 million square feet. Those figures predate the September vote; the chair’s comments indicate the active legislative queue the pause would immediately affect is smaller.

Data centers generated $1.2 billion in real and personal property tax revenue in FY 2026—39% of the county budget—with FY 2027 projections at $1.3 billion (40%). More than 17,000 direct and indirect jobs are tied to the industry. Independent trackers list roughly 13 Loudoun facilities under construction and dozens more planned, consistent with the county’s construction and pipeline numbers.

The user’s reference to “13 applications” aligns most closely with tracked under-construction counts in some databases and the limited set of current legislative items officials described as small. The pause does not freeze the large already-approved inventory.

Virginia Statewide: Hundreds Operating, Hundreds More in the Queue

Statewide counts vary by tracker because some count individual buildings, others campuses or announced projects:

Aterio (updated Sept. 16, 2026): 347 operating, 138 under construction, 559 announced; estimated power capacity near 59 GW across the active pipeline.

Cleanview (September 2026): 352 operating facilities with 17,376 MW combined capacity and 395 planned projects that would add 34,932 MW.

Northern Virginia remains the dominant cluster. Dominion Energy has cited tens of gigawatts of contracted or queued data-center load and is planning tens of billions in transmission and generation spending. Other Virginia localities—including Chesapeake, Suffolk, Front Royal, and others—have also paused or tightened reviews.

Consumer Power Prices: Virginia Below the U.S. Average but Rising Faster

EIA Electric Power Monthly data for June 2026 (latest complete state figures) put Virginia’s average residential rate at 17.22 cents per kWh, versus a U.S. average of 18.34 cents—about 6% below the national figure. That ranks Virginia roughly in the middle of the pack (around 30th-lowest / 22nd-highest depending on whether D.C. is included).

Ten lowest residential rates (June 2026 EIA):

• Nevada: 13.11¢
• Nebraska: 13.25¢
• Utah: 13.37¢
• Louisiana: 13.49¢
• Tennessee: 14.07¢
• Arkansas: 14.12¢
• North Dakota: 14.12¢
• Kentucky: 14.26¢
• Oklahoma: 14.33¢
• Idaho: 14.37¢

Virginia sits well above those lowest-cost states and below high-cost markets such as California (34.74¢), Massachusetts (29.61¢), New York (29.49¢), and Maryland (21.84¢). Year-over-year, however, Virginia’s residential rate rose about 13% from 15.23¢ in June 2025—one of the larger increases among states. Commercial rates in Virginia averaged 10.99¢.

Rapid data-center load growth is a stated driver of Dominion’s capital plans and of local concerns about transmission, substations, noise, and land use. Whether the pause meaningfully slows statewide demand or rate pressure will depend on how many new legislative filings arrive, how quickly Phase 2 standards are adopted, and how much of the already-approved 35-plus million square feet in Loudoun actually gets built.

A final vote on the drafted resolution is expected in October. Existing construction and most previously approved projects are slated to proceed.

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