PATH is on the ropes!

by: blonde moment

Tue Dec 21, 2010 at 09:27:20 AM EST

Before I get into the exciting news, an apology: I have been sorely remiss in keeping folks up to date on developments w/r/t the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH). And there have been lots of developments!

Rather than exhaust you with a complete recap, I'll concentrate on the highlights.

Yesterday (Dec. 20), PATH filed a request with the WV Public Service Commission, asking that the application process be delayed ("tolled") 194 days; that's more than six months!

PATH also said it will be asking for the same delay in the Maryland and Virginia application processes. Here's a link to their request: http://www.psc.state.wv.us/scr...

Why such a humongous delay? Well, PATH (which is a partnership of convenience and necessity between AEP and Allegheny Power) sez there's a NEW 2011 "load forecast" coming that "may have an impact on the current in-service date for PATH."

Putting that into normal English: There's a new forecast coming that will show PATH isn't needed by 2015 after all. Good thing that needed-by date is moving, since PATH didn't stand a snowball's chance of getting done by then!

But here's the real story: On Dec. 10, the PSC staff filed a motion asking the commission to dismiss or significantly toll the application because

It is ludicrous to continue to move forward with the PATH project while major changes are being contemplated for critical transmission infrastructure that should be factored into assessment of the need for PATH. (emphasis added)

Any time the word "ludicrous" is used in a legal document, you know the other side has screwed up! (Here's the link to the staff motion: http://www.psc.state.wv.us/scr...

What did PATH do to earn such scorn?

Dominion Virginia Power (VEPCO) is going to rebuild the line that runs from the Mt. Storm substation to the Doubs substation in Maryland. This rebuild will give the line a 65% increase in capacity. The rebuild also is a major part of an alternative to PATH that PEPCO proposed to PJM, the "regional transmission organization" that's supposed to forecast, plan, and approve transmission projects.

Called Alternative 1, the PEPCO proposal has a pricetag of about $600 million versus PATH's supposed $2.1 billion cost. Alt 1 requires NO new rights-of-way, since the transmission lines that would be rebuilt/upgraded already exist. And Alt 1 would solve all the  alleged "reliability" issues PATH is supposed to solve through at least 2019!

It turns out that PJM never did any side-by-side cost/benefit analysis of PATH and any feasible alternatives! (There's yet another proposal, called the Liberty Line, that would run across the bottom of Pennsylvania, that solves the same "reliability" issues as PATH. PJM dismissed it because the line would be built by a private company ... rather than one of PJM's members. That's not what PJM says, but hey - we're not stupid!)

It is hard to escape the conclusion that PJM has been conspiring with AEP and Allegheny to force PATH through, even though it provides no benefit to the states it will run through - indeed, will actively harm them.

Tomorrow I'll post a diary discussing the games PJM has been playing with this process, and how the consumer advocates in eight states - including our own - are calling foul.