Cheap power to Northeast US: a mixed blessing

At least eight transmission lines are planned to connect the region with Midwestern coal plants.

from the May 9, 2007 edition

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In fact, company officials say the lines move mostly along existing right-of-ways for power lines and that they will work through state regulators – not ram the line through using a federal mandate.

"We plan to go through the state process to address local concerns and to use mainly existing corridors," says Paul Koonce, CEO of Dominion Energy, the transmission and pipeline division of Dominion Resources. "We want to minimize any impact and we will do that."

But neither he nor other Dominion officials will rule out using the new national corridor as a backup option should Virginia deny it a permit.

While the company, federal officials, and regional transmission authorities are pushing a wider plan for the Northeast that includes at least seven other lines as a way to improve reliability, expert opinion is split on the matter.

One recent study by PJM Interconnection, which oversees power trading and grid reliability across all or parts of 13 states from the Midwest to the East Coast, found that consumers pay an extra $2 billion or more because of grid congestion.

Others, however, say the new lines will mean vast profits for power companies that can sell far more cheap coal power into high-price areas on the East Coast like New York City and Long Island.

"Basically, the folks with an economic interest in more transmission are promoting this concept that it will improve reliability," says George Loehr, vice chairman of the executive committee of the New York State Reliability Council, a nonprofit that works closely with the New York Independent System Operator to ensure grid reliability. But reliability depends on daily operating standards and better oversight, not new lines, he says.

"You can take any system and add transmission to it and you're not going to make the system more reliable just by doing that," he says.

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