‘Project Mountaineer’ Hopes To Power Up The East

Transmission lines carrying coal-fired electricity may ease strain on system

The Associated Press, June 12, 2005

Power. Central Appalachia has an abundance of it, and the Eastern Seaboard needs more of it.

Now the challenge for utilities is how to get more electricity generated from coal-fired power plants up and over the Allegheny Mountains that serve as the boundary with the metropolitan areas in the coastal states. Up to 1,000 miles of new power-transmission lines at a cost of nearly $4 billion would help relieve congestion on the grid and increase reliability, according to regional grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC.

Dubbed “Project Mountaineer,” PJM says two or more new “backbone” transmission lines would enhance access to energy from currently operating and future power plants near the coalfields of Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, and would reduce bottlenecks along the way.

But PJM acknowledges that several questions about rights of way, the environmental impact and cost recovery concerns will need to be resolved before the project can move forward.

Over the past 18 months, west-to-east electricity transmission has increased by 35 percent, according to PJM, which describes itself as the “air traffic controller” for the high-voltage grid that serves 51 million customers in 13 states between Illinois, New Jersey and North Carolina.

And with the expected construction of cleaner-burning coal plants over the next decade, transmission lines are expected to be put under further stress, said Karl Pfirrmann, president of PJM’s western region.

But the new transmission lines would require approval in three to six states, and “as we all know too well, any one state can slow down the siting process,” Pfirrmann said in announcing the Project Mountaineer concept at a Charleston conference last month.

Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power Co. has long relied on the 765-kilovolt transmission lines that PJM is studying. AEP spokesman Pat Hemlepp compared the capabilities of larger-capacity transmission lines to traffic flow on highways. “The 765-kilovolt lines are the equivalent of an eight-lane highway,” he said. “They allow AEP to build our plants near the fuel and the water, even though the demand for our power is farther away.”

AEP’s recent experience in getting a 90-mile line constructed might serve as a warning to more ambitious projects: The permitting process for the stretch between Wyoming County in Southern West Virginia to Jackson’s Ferry, Va., took 15 years to complete. After several legal challenges, the $289 million line, which cuts across the Appalachian Trail, the New River, private residences, state land and 11 miles of the Jefferson National Forest, is expected to be finished by the middle of next year.

“Everybody recognizes the need for extra transmission to increase capacity, prevent blackouts and things like that,” said Hemlepp. “But nobody wants it in any place where they can see it.”

Proponents say increased capacity is needed to avoid repeats of the huge Northeastern blackout of 2003 and California’s energy crisis of 2000 and 2001.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Pat Wood III calls the country’s power-transmission capabilities “the weakest link in our electric supply system.”

Nationwide demand for electricity is expected to increase by 20 percent over the next decade, but construction of high-voltage transmission facilities is expected to grow only by 6 percent, Wood told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy and Resources on Wednesday.

PJM’s Pfirrmann acknowledged that in evaluating new transmission corridors “we may need to address difficult issues associated with traversing national forest land and other protected areas.”

About half of the country’s electricity in generated from coal-fired power plants, followed by about 20 percent from nuclear and about 17 percent from natural gas. Expanding the transmission capacity would allow more coal-fired power to flow east, a concept called “coal-by-wire.”

Not everyone is convinced that long-distance transmission is the way to go. In a filing with federal regulators, Atlanta-based Southern Company Services Inc. challenged the notion that coal is best delivered via power lines rather than by rail, truck or barge.

“It is often much more economical to transport the coal over long distances than to attempt to upgrade the transmission system,” according to the filing from Southern Company, which uses coal to generate about 69 percent of its power for its utilities in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi.

Billy Jack Gregg, head of the Consumer Advocate Division of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, said the biggest challenge will be finding routes for new transmission lines. “By and large, people make their peace with rights of way that are already there, but vehemently oppose greenfields developments,” Gregg said.

The issue of who pays for the project also will need to be sorted out, Gregg said. Investment in transmission lines often isi eligible for rate recovery from consumers who benefit from upgrades, but the regional scope could make it more difficult to identify exactly who should foot the bill.

Pfirrmann said a study has shown that, spread across the entire PJM footprint, a $4 billion investment would cost consumers 1 cent per megawatt hour. “People tend to look at the receiving end and say those are the people who are going to benefit the most,” Pfirrmann said. “But you’re also getting increased reliability for all customers, and you’re going to develop the coal fields needed for new generation.”