Pennsylvania OKs part of power line

The Associated Press
Published: November 13, 2008

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania regulators on Thursday approved a short stretch of a multistate high-voltage power line designed to bring cheaper electricity from Appalachia to the Washington-New York corridor.

The state Public Utility Commission voted 4-1 in favor of the 1.2-mile line to be built by electric utility Allegheny Energy Inc.

West Virginia and Virginia authorities already have given the OK to their portions of the proposed 200-mile line.

The $1.3 billion Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Co. would run from the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, through north central West Virginia and through northern Virginia.

The line would pass through the northern tip of Culpeper County.

Greensburg, Pa.-based Allegheny originally planned to extend the 500-kilovolt line another 36 miles deeper into Pennsylvania.

Those plans ran into intense community opposition, and the commission now wants to see if an alternative to the longer line is possible.

Pennsylvania’s approved portion will begin at a substation near Interstate 79 and the town of Mount Morris.

It will continue on through West Virginia to Loudoun County.

In October, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission endorsed two portions of the line proposed by Trans-Allegheny and a Dominion Resources Inc. subsidiary.

West Virginia’s Public Service Commission approved construction of a 120-mile section across the north-central part of the state in August.

Allegheny agreed to give West Virginia customers a seven-year reprieve from costs associated with building the line.