Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 24, 1990 TAG: 9003242317
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A key part would be a 110-mile-long 765,000-volt line from Beckley, W.Va., to connect with an Apco station at Cloverdale.
The two utilities propose a major project of 212 miles of new line, costing up to $450 million and requiring three to four years to build, after state approval.
Detailed engineering studies locating the exact routes for the lines will take 1 1/2 to two years before the companies apply for a permit from the State Corporation Commission and the West Virginia Public Service Commission, said Joe Vipperman, president of Apco. Completion of the line could come in the late 1990s, the utilities said.
Apco's existing 765-kilovolt line from West Virginia through Wythe, Carroll and Floyd counties aroused health concerns and organized opposition when it was built in the mid-1980s.
Environmentalists claim the line's magnetic field endangers human health.
Vipperman, admitting "a fair amount of publicity on both sides of the issue" exists, said the line would be built in accordance with standards of the International Radioactive Protection Association.
While "some studies indicate possible health effects" from the big lines, Vipperman said, "We don't believe there will be any adverse effects because of their operation."
Apco has been selling electricity to Virginia Power for years and both companies recognize that reinforcement of existing transmission systems is necessary to meet customers' future power requirements, Vipperman said.
In addition to the West Virginia link, a 500,000-volt line would be built from Apco's Joshua Falls Station near Lynchburg 88 miles northeast to Virginia Power's North Anna Station north of Richmond. A 500,000-volt line would be built 14 miles from North Anna to the Ladysmith Station.
Apco would bear 58 percent of the cost of the transmission line and Virginia Power would pay the remainder.
At a Richmond news conference, the companies said they must obtain rights of way for the lines. This has become a controversial process for high-voltage lines because of widespread concerns over environmental, esthetic and health issues.
A line from Beckley to Cloverdale probably would cross the Jefferson National Forest in Craig County, requiring the utilities "to jump through a lot of hoops," said Don Blackburn, a staff officer for the Jefferson.
The power companies will have to convince National Forest officials that there is no alternative to getting on Forest Service land, he said. The service "will have to look at a range of alternatives that might be more environmentally acceptable."
Alternative routes might be "economically unacceptable," he added.
Blackburn said an environmental review would require his agency to determine measures needed to protect wildlife, soil and water, as well as the view of the forest, if a high-voltage line were built.
Skip Deegans of the National Wildlife Federation said his organization "will look very closely" at the utilities' plans. "We want them to be sensitive to environmental resources."
Vipperman of Apco said the SCC and the West Virginia Public Service Commission are required by law to look at the need for the line, as well as all environmental aspects.
James T. Rhodes, Virginia Power president, said his company sees the planned joint line "as a means of increasing our service reliability and of expanding our options for low-cost capacity purchases."
Rhodes said his company would be glad to purchase electricity from independent power plants that might be lured to the coalfields by the new lines.
"We hope projects located near the coal mines will have cost advantages that will provide economic benefits for our customers, and we will very much welcome projects that will also increase jobs, investment and tax revenues in Southwest Virginia," Rhodes said.
Del. Alson H. Smith Jr., D-Frederick, chairman of a General Assembly subcommittee that studied trasmitting electricity from the coalfields to Virginia Power, said he will work closely with the utilities.
Virginia Power's need for more electricity was evident in the summer of 1988 when power supplies were pressed by high demand in hot weather across the East Coast, utility officials said. At times, the regional transmission system was inadequate to carry electricity from utilities in the Midwest to Virginia Power, officials said.
Richmond-based Virginia Power had to buy electricity from other Southern companies and this led to a joint study of the problem with Apco.
by CNB