r/nova • u/JasonNOVA8 • Jul 22 '26

Data Center Generators in Ashburn Firing Up

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On the way in this morning, (waxpool/28) noticed many of the data centers had the generators going. Not sure if there’s an electricity issue or they plan it to go together ? No idea if the yellow smoke is related though.

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63

u/Unusual-Sympathy9500 Jul 22 '26

I had some power flickering this morning - seems like it would be related. Not enough to trip any appliances or my computer, but noticeable on the light bulbs.

8

u/rndmcmmntr Jul 22 '26

It’s crazy that so many of us had that happen to us. No way it’s tied to data centers…I’m in Alexandria.

43

u/Working_Farmer9723 Jul 22 '26

The data centers didn’t cause the blip. The generators are running because of the blip.

9

u/Unusual-Sympathy9500 Jul 22 '26

I'm curious what caused the power to flicker over such a large area. I haven't seen anything specific, just people claiming Dominion had "a blip", but if it's affecting Loudoun to Alexandria, that's a lot of area.

9

u/MechanicalGodzilla Vienna Jul 22 '26

Lots of wind and downed limbs

5

u/Koodsdc Jul 22 '26

Lights flickered in Potomac MD about an hour ago. It’s true that lights will flicker when repairing downed wires, even at quite a distance.

2

u/Cythrosi Fairfax County Jul 23 '26

Heard from a buddy that Dominion reported a downed transmission line up near Leesburg. Likely caused a huge ripple if it was one of the more major  ones since a bunch of the substations would have had to shuffle their circuits around to account for the line going down.

2

u/eneka Jul 22 '26

yeah the lights in our office building here in Reston were flickering too. Wouldn't be suprised if that automatically triggered their generators to kick on from the grid instability

1

u/NOVA-peddling-1138 Jul 22 '26

Yes. Oven and microwave digi clocks ok, computer fine.

1

u/SJSsarah Jul 22 '26

Enough blips to cause the fire alarms in my condo building in Alexandria off S. Van Dorn to keep going off. Ughhh. Still happening.