ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Opponents argued that AEP doesn't need a new power line to serve its customers in Virginia and West Virginia, but wants it so it can move excess power to new customers in the Northeast.
Federal law will protect American Electric Power Co. customers from undue charges or the loss of a reliable power supply as the electric utility industry becomes more competitive, AEP told Virginia's State Corporation Commission in a report filed Monday.
"An integral part" of the federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 is the protection of customers in a utility's home region after access to its power lines is opened to competitors, AEP wrote.
The SCC had ordered Monday's report in connection with AEP's application to build a 765,000-volt power line from West Virginia to a substation at Cloverdale in Botetourt County.
AEP has said the line is needed to prevent power shortages and blackouts in its service area within the next few years.
But power line opponents also submitted a report, which, they said, documented AEP's "lies of omission" regarding improvements to the company's transmission system.
Several major projects already under way to improve AEP's system - which were not considered in the company's application - remove any justification for the 765-kilovolt power line, opponents from Craig, Giles, Montgomery and Roanoke counties argued.
AEP has said the line is needed to prevent power shortages and blackouts in its service area within the next few years.
When the SCC gave preliminary approval to the power line Dec. 13, the commission asked AEP to explain how the line would be operated to serve the interest of its customers in light of proposed changes in the power industry.
The company dealt with the latter issue in the report filed Monday.
AEP noted in its report Monday that the 1992 energy act established a legal framework for a competitive wholesale power industry by allowing customers to request access to a company's power lines. AEP said the act amended federal law to protect existing customers from having to pay the cost for any improvements that were needed on the transmission system to provide access to others.
The company also said that regulations being written to implement the 1992 law recognize that the reliability of electric service for existing customers must be preserved when a company opens its lines to other sellers of power.
Opponents argued that AEP doesn't need the line to serve its customers in Virginia and West Virginia but wants it so it can move excess power to new customers in the Northeast. A new 138-kilovolt line, which has two to three times the carrying capacity of a normal 138-kilovolt line, will serve one-third of the customers that AEP had proposed to be served by the 765-kilovolt line, opponents said.
The construction of the 138-kv line unburdens the rest of the system, so why is the 765-kv line needed? asked Cliff Shaffer, a power-line opponent from Giles County.
Charles Simmons, a former AEP vice president and now a company consultant, said the improvements to the 138-kilovolt line won't be able to carry the all the electricity that will be demanded through the coming year. "The line will help, but it will only be a very slight improvement," he said.
The SCC also asked AEP back on Dec. 13 to see if it could come up with an alternative route for the line that would lessen its impact on the scenic Sinking Creek Valley in Craig County.
AEP dealt with the environmental issue in a report filed March 12. Although the company said it still preferred its original route, it proposed an alternative route to avoid the Sinking Creek Valley, bringing the line instead through Giles and Montgomery counties.
Because state law requires that the need for a line and its route be considered together, the opponents argue the SCC should dismiss the company's application and reopen the proceedings.
The U.S. Forest Service is still studying the company's preferred route for its effect on the environment as it crosses the Appalachian Trail, Jefferson National Forest and a section of the New River proposed for federal protection.
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