The PJM Interconnection Board on Friday authorized $2.9 billion in electric transmission upgrades and additions, including two major new transmission lines that would carry electricity from the Appalachian Basin and the Midwest to power-constrained East Coast markets.

Both lines, authorized to relieve expected overloads in the next five years, face opposition by residential stakeholders because they would cross scenic areas that include the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Allegheny Highlands of West Virginia. According to PJM, the utilities building the transmission lines would determine the routes that the lines would follow subject to state and federal approval.

“While these two new lines are required to maintain the grid’s reliability, they have the secondary benefit of resolving about $450 million in annual congestion costs,” said PJM CEO Phillip G. Harris.

A 765 kV line, estimated to cost $1.8 billion, would run 300 miles from the Amos Substation in western West Virginia to the Kemptown Substation in north-central Maryland. The Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) would be built by American Electric Power (AEP) and Allegheny Energy to relieve overloads that are expected to occur as early as 2012 on 13 existing transmission lines in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Allegheny and AEP plan to build 250 miles of PATH from AEP’s Amos substation near St. Albans, WV, to Bedington substation, northeast of Martinsburg, WV. Another 40 miles of transmission lines, consisting of twin-circuit 500 kV transmission, would be constructed by Allegheny from Bedington to a new substation at Kemptown, southeast of Frederick, MD.

Allegheny and AEP formed a joint venture to build the project in April (see NGI, April 23). They expect to formalize their agreement for PATH in the coming weeks and then file with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for incentive rate recovery. Work on a routing study and environmental assessment for the project also would begin, and once those are completed, the companies would seek regulatory approvals from the utility commissions in both West Virginia and Maryland.

AEP would have lead responsibility for engineering, designing and managing the construction of the 765 kV elements of the project. Allegheny would have similar responsibilities for the twin-circuit 500 kV line. Each company would provide services for siting, acquiring rights-of-way, securing regulatory approvals from the states the line crosses and maintenance of the project.

A second 500 kV line, to be built by PPL Corp., FirstEnergy Corp. and Public Service Electric and Gas Co., would run 130 miles from the Susquehanna Substation in northeastern Pennsylvania to the Roseland Substation in northern New Jersey. The Susquehanna-to-Roseland line, estimated to cost $930 million, would address overloads projected to occur as soon as 2013 on 23 existing transmission lines in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Several other transmission additions remain under evaluation by the PJM board, including a transmission line proposal announced in 2006 by Pepco Holdings Inc. (see Power Market Today, May 16, 2006). The board also will be evaluating the recent transmission line proposal by Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (see Power Market Today, June 11).

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