Arlington County is set to take a big step toward meeting some of its ambitious renewable energy goals.
The county, which is working to become carbon-neutral by 2050, is joining Amazon in purchasing power from a new solar array in rural Virginia. The County Board is set to vote tonight on purchasing 31.7 percent of the output of a planned, 120 megawatt facility — dubbed the “Amazon Arlington Solar Farm Virginia” — in Pittsylvania County.
Nearly 5,000 Dominion customers in Arlington are currently without power as a result of a large outage.
The outage is affecting parts of the Virginia Square, Ballston, Bluemont, Arlington Forest and Glencarlyn neighborhoods, according to a Dominion map. As of 10:40 a.m. Dominion reported 4,798 customers without power in Arlington, and a few hundred more across the border in Fairfax County.
This fall, a pair of electric school buses will replace two older diesel buses in the Arlington Public Schools fleet, the first trickle of an expected wave that could convert the fleet to 100 percent electric by 2030.
Dominion Energy is helping to supply the two buses, and 48 others, to 16 Virginia localities, including Arlington. Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Prince William County are among the jurisdictions receiving new buses from Dominion.
(Updated at 6:30 p.m.) Nearly 400 Dominion customers are reported to be without power in the area around Wakefield High School on this snowy Tuesday night.
The outage follows a report of a live wire that fell across S. Chesterfield Road, prompting a road closure near the high school, according to police radio traffic. Dominion says the outage is caused by a tree on a power line and the estimated restoration time is between 7-10 p.m.
Update at 5:15 p.m. — Power has been restored to the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, but another, separate outage has been reported near Wakefield High School.
Earlier: Nearly 9,000 Dominion customers in Arlington are without power this morning.
Update at 10:45 p.m. — Power has been restored to most of the outage area, but additional outages are possible overnight. On the heels of a Severe Thunderstorm Warning that just expired, a Wind Advisory is now in effect until 4 a.m.:
…WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 AM EDT FRIDAY… * WHAT…WEST WINDS 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH EXPECTED. * WHERE…PORTIONS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, CENTRAL, NORTH CENTRAL, NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN MARYLAND, NORTHERN AND NORTHWEST VIRGINIA AND PANHANDLE WEST VIRGINIA. * WHEN…FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 4 AM EDT FRIDAY. * IMPACTS…GUSTY WINDS COULD BLOW AROUND UNSECURED OBJECTS. TREE LIMBS COULD BE BLOWN DOWN AND A FEW POWER OUTAGES MAY RESULT. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS… USE EXTRA CAUTION WHEN DRIVING, ESPECIALLY IF OPERATING A HIGH PROFILE VEHICLE. SECURE OUTDOOR OBJECTS. &&
Update at 2:45 p.m. — The outage no longer appears on Dominion’s map.
Earlier: More than 1,000 Dominion Energy customers are without power in the Ballston and Bluemont neighborhoods due to emergency utility work.
(Updated at 1:50 p.m.) Three out of four lanes of Wilson Blvd in Ballston were blocked by utility work Monday morning.
The work, at the intersection of Wilson and N. Randolph Street, near the mall, was to replace a blown electrical transformer in a utility vault that’s in the middle of the westbound lanes of Wilson. Crews from Dominion Energy were on scene, along with a large, mobile crane.
(Updated at 8:40 p.m.) An “electrical emergency” — reportedly a utility pole being burned by a malfunctioning power line — has prompted an extended road closure in Virginia Square.
Police have closed 14th Street between N. Lincoln Street and N. Kirkwood Road, near Arlington Science Focus Elementary School, to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
Shooting Suspect Served Time for Murder — Updated at 8:40 a.m. — Crystal City shooting suspect Mumeet Ali Muhammad was released from prison two years ago after being convicted of a 1991 murder in Arlington. And he had recently been arrested but then released after allegedly threatening to shoot a man in D.C. and possessing a gun as a felon. [WTOP, NBC 4]
Witness Recounts Hiding in Office During Shooting — “An association employee described the scene to InsideNoVa on Thursday, saying recent active-shooter training helped employees get through the terrifying episode. ‘Everybody did precisely what they should have done,’ said the employee, who asked that his name not be published… ‘I got right up next to door, crouched down and made myself as small as possible,’ he said. ‘I heard screaming, him yelling at her, her pleading with him.'” [InsideNova]
Update at 7:30 p.m. — The number of Dominion customers without power is down to 1,551. The outages are mostly in the North Highlands and Courthouse neighborhoods.
Earlier: More than 4,000 Dominion customers are currently without power in Arlington County.
A power outage planned for the 3000 block of Clarendon Blvd was canceled earlier this month, but it’s back on this weekend.
According to Binyam Gebreyes, operations specialist for Dominion Energy, the earlier planned outage didn’t occur because there were difficulties accessing the necessary equipment.
