ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 3, 1996 TAG: 9612030086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
American Electric Power Co. will propose a different route for its planned 765,000-volt power line early next year, the utility told the State Corporation Commission Monday.
AEP said that it has reconvened a study team from Virginia Tech and West Virginia University to make changes in its proposed route. Those changes are intended to answer concerns of the SCC and federal agencies that raised environmental questions about the plan. One of the agencies AEP is hoping to bring around with a new route is the U.S. Forest Service, which, after a preliminary study, said in June that the line should not be allowed to cross the Jefferson National Forest.
The line, as AEP originally proposed it, would run 115 miles from Wyoming County, W.Va., to an AEP power station at Cloverdale, just east of Roanoke.
AEP said it recently has reviewed the need for the line and studied options to building it, but the company told the commission that it remains convinced that the new line is "crucial if AEP is to continue to supply reliable electric power" to its Virginia customers.
"The company has concluded that the proposed Wyoming-Cloverdale project remains far and away the best, and in fact the only reasonable, overall solution to the compelling need for additional electric transmission capacity," AEP said.
The SCC had ordered AEP this past summer to explain by Dec.1 how the company planned to meet the future power needs of its Virginia customers.
Cliff Shaffer, a power-line opponent from Giles County, said AEP's response to the commission came as a surprise because it further delays the project. Opponents had expected the company to file a new route for the line with the commission Monday, he said.
Shaffer responded by accusing AEP of dragging its feet, buying time to pressure the Forest Service to drop its opposition to the line.
The commission should require AEP to file a new application to build the line rather than allow the company to modify its existing application, Shaffer said. Since last December, when the commission ruled in an interim order that the line is needed, enough new information has come to light on the need issue to require AEP to file a new application, he said.
Tom Ayers, an AEP spokesman, said he didn't think the company would respond to Shaffer's comments. AEP would file its proposed route changes and see what the commission has to say, Ayers said. AEP expects that the SCC will conduct public hearings on proposed changes in the route, he said.
At the same time AEP plans to file a modified route for the line with the SCC, it plans to ask the West Virginia Public Service Commission for permission to build the West Virginia portion of the line, the company said.
Ayers said it would be mid-1998 before AEP could expect final approval from both Virginia and West Virginia and late 1998 before federal approval could be secured. The company said that now it doesn't expect to complete the line before 2002.
But the line is needed by 1998 to provide reliable electric service in Virginia, the company said, and will not be completed until four years after that at best. Therefore, AEP said it will have to take interim steps to prevent power blackouts on an overloaded system. Those measures, the company said, would include improvements to its existing system and changes in its operating procedures, as well as temporarily cutting off power to some customers.
AEP first proposed building the new line, the largest type of line in operation in the United States, in 1990. The route it chose with help from a team from two universities would cross 12 miles of national forest, the Appalachian Trail and a portion of the New River in West Virginia being studied for federal protection as a scenic river.
The modified route will seek to minimize the effect on federal lands as well as on scenic areas in Craig County's Sinking Creek Valley and near Roanoke's Carvins Cove Reservoir that the state has raised concerns about, the company said.
AEP said, however, that the Forest Service's draft environmental study is "seriously flawed" and doesn't meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. The federal study, the company said, fails to recognize the urgent need for the line or consider at all the effect on human health and safety of banning the line from the forest. AEP will help the federal agencies fix the study, the company said.
AEP noted in Monday's SCC filing that, in to lessen the impact of the new line, it has offered to remove several other power lines from the forest and give enough AEP-owned land to the Forest Service to offset the land lost to the proposed line.
Also, as on-going deregulation and competition changes the power industry, the new line could support new generation facilities in Virginia and West Virginia built by independent power producers, AEP told the SCC. The opening of the U.S. power grid to competitors may also mean the flow of power on AEP's lines may remain high or increase even though AEP may not be directly involved in many competitive power sales, the company said.
As the power industry continues to restructure, the need for the line will not diminish but could become greater, the company said.
AEP asked the commission to take no further action on its application in Virginia until it files amendments to its application next year.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB