MORGANTOWN – Public Service Commission staff on Friday filed an objection to NextEra Energy Transmission MidAtlantic’s application for a PSC permit for its MidAtlantic Resiliency Link Project (MARL).
The application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, staff said, contains information about the proposed route and the project’s effects on electric bill that the general public may not understand.
Staff is asking the PSC to order NextEra to submit a revised “Notice of Filing” that contains information the public will understand.
First, staff said, the general public is not familiar with the names of the myriad transmission lines mentioned throughout NextEra’s filing, which was submitted on Jan. 30. They also don’t know the difference between 138 kilovolt transmission lines and MARL’s proposed 500 kV line.
“They would likely be unable to tell where the proposed MARL Project would be located based on such language contained in the proposed Notice of Filing.”
While some of the route location references are adequate, staff said, the revised filing should offer “a more detailed description of the MARL Project’s locations, including but not limited to street names/numbers, existing businesses, and easily recognizable landmarks.”
The filing references mileposts – abbreviated as MP in the text – but needs a clearer explanation of what those are relative to the proposed route. And the route map should be easier to access.
“Additional information on how to find the route map in physical form would give proper notice to residents who may not be tech savvy or have access to adequate internet coverage,” staff said.
Staff’s second object concerns tables showing the projected impact of the MARL Project on electric rates for West Virginia residential, commercial, and industrial customers of Mon Power and Potomac Edison.
The tables list the projected rate impacts only in terms of percentages, staff said, and do not contain a corresponding dollar amount. “The average customer may not be able to easily tell what a 0.03% or 1.25% increase to their monthly electric bill actually means, where a dollar and cents amount is widely and easily understood by the general public.”
Staff wants NextEra’s filing to be amended to include a table using the Commission’s standard 1,000 kilowatt-hour monthly usage amount, along with the existing tables, and that both should include a corresponding dollar amount with the respective percentages.
The proposed route for the MARL transmission line would span 107.5 miles starting in Greene County, Pa., and ending at a handoff point – a new 500 kV transmission line to be constructed by FirstEnergy – in Frederick County, Va. A proposed Woodside Substation is also in Frederick County, Va, but about 11 miles to the east of the eastern terminus of the proposed route handoff point.
About 58.9 miles would cross West Virginia: 5.9 miles across Mon County, 15.8 across Preston, 10.9 across Mineral and 26.2 across Hampshire.
As of Friday afternoon, PSC had received 3,724 letters of protest against the project. Objections include affects on landowners, scenery along the right of way, electric bills, and the project’s lack of immediate benefit to West Virginians – with no local distribution lines branching off of it to supply local power. Opponents say it will merely transmit power from Pennsylvania to data centers in Virginia.
The project was authorized by PJM Interconnection, the regional power grid operator. NextEra says, “The MARL Project is a critical 500 kV backbone project needed to maintain the reliability of the PJM grid.”
