What data centers pay, and what they need
Data centers pay a lot of Loudoun's bills. In the FY 2027 adopted budget, real property and computer equipment taxes from data centers come to about $1.3 billion, roughly 40 percent of General Fund revenue.[4] That money matters. A pause does not touch any data center already built.
Every data center the county approves needs power. That power comes through substations and transmission lines. Loudoun has approved data centers one application at a time for 25 years, and it still has no plan for how many more it can power or where the lines to serve them will go.
What the Board has done
On Sept. 15, 2026 the Board directed staff, 7-1-0-1, to prepare a resolution pausing its consideration of legislative data center and substation applications for up to 12 months from the date each one first goes to the Planning Commission. The purpose, in the Board's motion, is "for the Board of Supervisors to apply Phase 2 of the Data Centers Standards and Locations ZOAM and CPAM to the application." The pause is effective Sept. 15 and does not make any application inactive. A second motion, also 7-1-0-1, lets the Board take up an application during the pause if it involves a grid reliability substation or its statutory deadline is about to run out.[2]
The County Attorney advised that a blanket moratorium is not legal in Virginia, and that the Board can defer its own final votes within the state's 12-month deadline. The pause covers final votes only. Applications can still be filed and reviewed by the Planning Commission.[1]
The same night, the Board denied the Tech Park at Dulles substation, 6-3. Its written findings say: "The electrical grid in Loudoun County is severely strained," and a new direct-connect substation "will exacerbate the problem by promoting development of new high wattage users and causing off site impacts of new high voltage transmission lines within the County."[2]
What the SCC said
The SCC reached the same point in its April 9, 2026 Golden to Mars order. It wrote that as data centers concentrate in one area, there may come a point where no reasonable transmission route is left.[5] The county decides how many data centers it approves. The SCC then decides where the lines go.
Phase 2 is the county's next set of data center rules: compatibility and siting, substation policy, on-site power generation, noise and building height. The county expects to finish it in 2027.[3] A pause means the Board decides the next applications under those rules, not under the old ones while the new ones are still being written.
What the pause does not do
It does not reach administrative applications, such as site plans. That includes the projects still moving under the 2025 grandfathering resolution. See Grandfathering.
What happens next
The vote was set for Oct. 20. At the County Attorney's request, Chair Phyllis Randall moved it to the Board's Nov. 17, 2026 business meeting.[6] Email the Board at bos@loudoun.gov before then.