PSC receives testimony for and against MARL project as hearing date approaches
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MORGANTOWN - Parties involved in NextEra Energy Transmission MidAtlantic’s application process for its MidAtlantic Resiliency Link Project are preparing for the evidentiary hearing set to begin at the end of this month.
Some have submitted rebuttal testimony this week - responses to testimony offered by other parties.
West Virginians Against Transmission Injustice has been among the most vocal opponents: speaking at various events and issuing occasional press releases. WATI President Anthony Campbell submitted 29 pages to the Public Service Commission on Tuesday.
NextEra, on the same day, submitted 341 pages from 10 company officials.
Campbell told the PSC that recent cancellations, withdrawals, and delays of planned data-center projects raise the question of energy load forecasts and the need for the MARL line. The demand may have been overstated and NextEra’s projections need further validation.
In a question to Campbell, the PSC noted that PJM Interconnection does not independently validate load forecasts and asks Campbell to expand on his point.
He cited comments from members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding PJM’s load forecasts. One, he said, "stated that PJM’s work must include a ‘serious focus on load forecasting (and)... a clearer picture of which projects will materialize,’ as well as better information concerning where, when, and why load is growing."
The commissioner, he said, connected better load information to determining who should bear the costs associated with that growth.
Campbell told the PSC, "Before billions of dollars of infrastructure are approved based in significant part on projected large-load growth, the record should contain reasonably current and verified information concerning whether those projected loads remain likely to materialize."
The NextEra officials responded to prior testimony from many intervenors in the case. We can’t look at it in detail here, but can offer a few highlights.
A common complaint from property owners along the proposed West Virginia portion of the line is proximity to homes and disturbances to private property.
Kaitlin McCormick, NextEra project execution team senior director, told the PSC that only eight residential dwellings sit within 80 feet of the proposed route right-of-way corridor in West Virginia. Five are located near the corridor while paralleling existing transmission.
"While residential proximity was an important routing consideration," she said, "the Routing Study evaluated it together with a broad range of environmental, land use, engineering, constructability and community factors. ... The Proposed Route provided the most balanced overall solution and achieved one of the best residential proximity outcomes among the alternatives considered."
NextEra has proposed several route revisions, and landowners worry more may come, PSC told McCormick. She said that is possible, if the PSC grants NextEra’s request for siting flexibility.
But changes would require PSC approval, she said. "Even adjustments within the Siting Corridor will be undertaken in coordination and communication with landowners."
MARL opponents have argued it is just a pass-through to Virginia data centers with no benefits to West Virginians.
McCormick reiterated the benefits NextEra foresees: 200-300 construction jobs in West Virginia; $133 million in property tax payments to the state and to Monongalia, Preston, Mineral and Hampshire counties over the life of the project; an estimated $65 million in payments to West Virginia landowners; and a significant positive economic impact on the West Virginia economy and on the four counties the line traverse, as detailed in testimony from the WVU Bureau for Business & Economic Research.
She said, "A safe, reliable transmission grid provides the infrastructure needed to maintain a strong and healthy economy. Without a consistent, reliable electrical grid businesses, schools, and hospitals cannot operate to deliver goods and services to the local and regional economy."
Ryan Colley, NextEra’s executive director for development, addressed the demand issue. "The need for the MARL project is well-established, and recent events have not changed the need for the project to address serious reliability violations that PJM has found will occur as soon as 2027-28."
Colley said, "The consequence of not addressing the reliability violations identified by PJM is not simply that fewer data centers may come online. The MARL project was not selected solely to serve Northern Virginia data centers.
He cited supporting testimony that indicates severe thermal and voltage reliability violations that "could lead to widespread and extreme conditions" that include "system collapse and blackouts."
The Valley Link project - another transmission line that passes through West Virginia on its way to Virginia - doesn’t erase the need for MARL, he said.
Valley Link hasn’t even been approved, he said. Using it to deny the MARL project is merely speculative. "The fact that PJM has continued to identify additional transmission needs as load forecasts have grown - with the 2030 summer peak forecast rising by nearly 16% in just three forecast cycles - demonstrates that these projects work together as part of an evolving regional transmission plan, and that no single subsequent project renders MARL unnecessary.
"Characterizing MARL as an ‘extension cord’ for Virginia," he said, "does not reflect either the reliability needs for which PJM selected the project or how MARL will be integrated into the regional transmission system."
The evidentiary hearing is set for Oct. 26-30 and Nov. 2, with briefs to follow. The PSC decision is due by March 6, 2027.