The Winchester Star, November 8, 2008

by Drew Houff

Winchester — The Warrenton-based Piedmont Environmental Council has taken the next step in its continued fight against the construction of a high-voltage power line that would travel across Northern Virginia.

The PEC presented its notice of appeal late Wednesday, according to documents filed with the Virginia Supreme Court.

The state Supreme Court likely will consider the appeal to stop construction of the 500-kilovolt line next summer, said Robert Lazaro, director of communications for the PEC, in a telephone interview this week.

In addition to the PEC, Frederick County-based Virginia’s Commitment — made up of concerned citizens and business owners — and the county governments of Fauquier, Culpeper, and Prince William also have filed appeals.

Lazaro said the PEC is arguing in its appeal that the Virginia State Corporation Commission deferred its responsibilities to a non-government entity.

PJM Interconnection LLC, which oversees the Mid-Atlantic power grid, had sought approval from the state SCC for the line proposed by Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy and Richmond-based Dominion Virginia Power.

The Virginia SCC approved the state’s portion of the 240-mile project in October, following more than a year of hearings and arguments for and against the line.

The 93-mile portion in Virginia would enter Frederick County at the Virginia-West Virginia border, connect to the Meadow Brook electrical substation south of Stephens City, and then travel through Warren County and on to a substation in Loudoun County.

Allegheny Energy would operate all of the line in Frederick County and part in Warren County, but the remainder would be operated by Dominion Virginia Power.

The SCC’s approval is contingent upon approval in Pennsylvania, after West Virginia’s Public Service Commission approved that state’s portion of the project in August.

Approval by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, however, has not been as easy, especially following an August recommendation by two administrative law judges that the line not be allowed there.

The judges, according to papers filed with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, harshly viewed the proposed line.

“The costs and adverse impacts of the [transmission line] clearly outweigh the benefits of it,” the document stated. “We are convinced that the project is driven by economics and not by reliability violations.”

Allegheny Energy officials, in an effort to win approval in Pennsylvania, subsequently asked that the transmission line be considered separately from another more controversial project that would provide local electricity service in the southwestern part of the state. In Allegheny’s original request, the two projects were tied together.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission agreed to consider each portion separately, allowing plans for the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL) to continue.

Officials from PJM Interconnection have warned that without TrAIL, the stability of the grid and the reliable flow of electricity cannot be reasonably assured, according to a statement issued by Allegheny.

Officials from Allegheny and Dominion have argued that any instability in the flow of electricity could result in blackouts, voltage disruptions, and brownouts in the region as of 2011.