HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two proposals for major mid-Atlantic power transmission lines received critical endorsements yesterday from the company that operates the region’s electricity grid. The proposed high-voltage lines, which would cost $2.7 billion, are designed to relieve the strain on existing lines that officials say could overload as early as 2012 and to bring cheaper, surplus electricity from Appalachia and the Midwest to big East Coast cities. Many residents, local officials and environmental groups are likely to oppose the lines, which would run from West Virginia to Maryland and from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. Both lines would cross scenic and heavily touristed areas from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to West Virginia’s Allegheny Highlands. Yesterday’s positive votes by the board of PJM Interconnection mean the companies behind the high-voltage transmission lines are likely to launch environmental and siting studies as a prelude to filing plans with state regulators. Those studies could take a year or more, and will help the companies determine exact routes. Norristown-based PJM has no regulatory authority over the power lines, but manages the transmission network that serves more than 50 million people in 13 eastern states and the District of Columbia. Its opinion carries weight with state utility regulators as the vast power network undergoes its first major expansion in decades. State regulators have long had approval authority over power lines. However, a 2005 law now allows the federal government to override state regulators for projects that are deemed to be critical to the nation’s electric transmission needs and fall into specially designated corridors. Both lines, as well as another approved by PJM last year, would be built in one of two special areas proposed by the Department of Energy. One of the power lines would run approximately 300 miles from American Electric Power Co.’s John Amos coal-fired power plant near St. Albans, W.Va., to a substation to be built near Damascus, Md. It would be built by Columbus, Ohio-based AEP and Allegheny Energy Inc. of Greensburg, Pa. The second line would run about 130 miles from PPL Corp.’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant near Berwick in northeastern Pennsylvania to the Roseland substation near Newark in northern New Jersey. It would be built by Allentown-based PPL, FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, Ohio, and Public Service Electric and Gas Co. of Newark. The transmission line approved by PJM last year, the first since the 2005 federal law went into effect, has met steep resistance and prompted calls for the law’s repeal. That power line would stretch 240 miles from southwestern Pennsylvania to fast-growing northern Virginia.
POWER LINES: At A Glance
Details of two proposals for major mid-Atlantic power transmission lines that are expected to be brought before state regulators:
•WEST VIRGINIA TO MARYLAND
Begins: John Amos coal-fired power plant near St. Albans, W.Va.
Ends: substation to be built near Damascus, Md.
Proposed by: American Electric Power Co. and Allegheny Energy Inc.
Length: 300 miles
Cost: $1.8 billion
Voltage: 765 kilovolts through West Virginia; twin 500-kilovolt lines in Maryland
•PENNSYLVANIA TO NEW JERSEY
Begins: Susquehanna nuclear power plant near Berwick, Pa.
Ends: Roseland substation near Newark, N.J.
Proposed by: PPL Corp., FirstEnergy Corp. and Public Service Electric and Gas Co.
Length: 130 miles
Cost: $930 million
Voltage: 500 kilovolts
Source: PJM Interconnection
