SCC consultants give qualified support to power line proposal

Dominion Virginia Power believes a consultants’ analysis prepared for a state government agency clearly affirms its argument for a proposed transmission line through the Piedmont.

"It’s needed, and it’s the least impactive" route to meet Northern Virginia’s future energy demands," said Dominion spokesman Jim Norvelle, alluding to conclusions in the study commissioned by State Corporation Commission (SCC) staff.

The staff last week released the study on the proposed Meadow Brook-to-Loudoun transmission line.

The proposed line "would fully resolve the expected [electricity] transmission reliability issues" for Northern Virginia in 2011 and "would be the least impacting to the commonwealth," according to the consultants.

Norvelle called the findings "encouraging."

But the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), which has launched a multi-million dollar effort to stop the project, contends Dominion has failed to mention key aspects of the consultants' report that suggest potentially big flaws in the proposal.

"Baldersdash!" PEC spokesman Bob Lazaro said of Dominion’s conclusions about the study. "It’s wishful spin on the part of" the utility company, he said..

PEC President Chris Miller said in a statement that the SCC staff report "makes it clear that there are alternatives to Dominion's ill-advised and unnecessary transmission line.

"It reports what we have known for some time," Miller continued. "Transmission line proponents are using unreliable and outdated data. In question in the case before the SCC is the issue of whether the assumptions relied on by Dominion and PJM [Interconnection] are realistic for making a determination on a $1 billion proposal with such significant impact."

PJM is a membership organization that manages the transmission of electricity in 13 states, including Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Dominion Virginia belongs to PJM.

While the SCC consultants back the project, the corporation staff provided no opinion the proposal, Lazaro emphasized.

"The SCC (staff) doesn’t endorse a line," he said.

SCC Spokesman Ken Schrad said the staff hired consultants to make need and location recommendations because it lacked the wherewithal to do so.

Dominion’s spring 2007 application to the SCC relies on old data and fails to adequately address alternatives to the proposed line, said Lazaro, citing references in the report on both points.

Dominion and its partner, Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Co., want SCC permission to build a 500,000-volt transmission line to link a substation near Winchester to one at Arcola in Loudoun.

Dominion claims the line is critical to satisfying Northern Virginia’s growing electricity requirements. The line must be operating by the summer of 2011, otherwise the region will face possible "rolling blackouts," according to the utility.

PEC strongly disagrees with Dominion’s scenario, arguing that the region’s power needs instead can be met through conservation, new technology and infrastructure upgrades.

The proposed 65-mile line would parallel an existing power line corridor through Frederick, Warren, Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Prince William and Loudoun counties.

A new line would destroy farmland, forest and vistas and diminish property values, according to PEC and other critics.

Dominion’s alternative transmission line route partly tracks Interstate 66 through Fauquier in an area that includes the highest concentration of conservation easements in the country.

Dominion acknowledges, as the SCC consultants’ report notes, that the utility application includes old data regarding the proposed line.

But that’s to be expected since the company submitted the application last April, said Norvelle, the Dominion spokesman said.

"We don’t think it’s a serious flaw," he said, promising the utility would supply the SCC with updated information, as requested.

For regulatory and "engineering" reasons, alternatives to the proposed Piedmont line discussed in the SCC staff report would be "infeasible" to implement by 2011, Norvelle said.

"One of the continuing themes of the [consultants’ report] is what can be done by the summer of 2011," he said. "The clock’s ticking here."

Dominion remains confident that any new data would not alter the conclusions by the SCC consultants, which Norvelle described as "encouraging."

In quoting the consultants, he said the proposed line and route would "fully resolve" transmission reliability issues and would be "least impacting to the commonwealth."

Dominion believes the proposed route would be less damaging than the alternative because it parallels an existing utility corridor and uses some of the existing right-of-way.

Still, it would need to acquire substantially more right-of-way to build the proposed line.

Norvelle described the consultants reports for the SCC staff as another example of "independent" analysis pointing to the need for the line.

SCC Hearing Examiner Alexander Skirpan will hold a Feb. 25 evidentiary hearing in Richmond on the proposed line.

That will give Dominion, the SCC staff, PEC, local governments, including Fauquier, and other groups and individuals a chance to formally present their case on the proposal.

The hearing will be conducted much like a courtroom trial. Experts may testify and be cross examined by lawyers for formal participants.

Skirpan eventually will make a recommendation to the three-member SCC board, which will decide the matter.

The SCC board's ruling may be appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.

E-mail the reporter: ddelrosso@timespapers