Just over a month after the four-member Pennsylvania Utility Commission voted unanimously to reject a controversial overhead powerline project proposed for construction in southcentral Pennsylvania, the contractor hired to obtain necessary regulatory approvals to build it has filed appeals.
Transource Energy officials filed an appeal Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and will file Wednesday with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. The appeals challenge the commission’s order, which denied the Pennsylvania portion of constructing the Independence Energy Connection project.
PJM Interconnection, the regional grid transmission operator, said experts had identified the project’s “need” almost five years ago. Officials claimed that there was an infrastructure “bottleneck” that didn’t allow power to freely flow south into northern Maryland.
The project was supposed to be constructed in Franklin and York counties and spanned the Pennsylvania-Maryland line.
“In its filings, Transource explains that the PJM determination of need is the requirement that should be followed to efficiently and reliably operate a multi-state regional transmission system,” Transource officials said in a statement. “Participation in the PJM Interconnection and its regional grid operations bring significant benefits to its member’s states, including $3.7 billion of annual savings.”
- Read more: Central Pa. landowners relieved as PUC rejects controversial powerline project: ‘We fought hard’
But, neither PUC Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes, who was assigned to oversee the case, nor PUC commissioners, who agreed with her recommendation, didn’t calculate a benefit for Pennsylvanians.
The commission voted on May 20. Barnes had handed down her recommendation to commissioners saying experts had testified that congestion costs had “substantially declined by over $400 million since 2014″ without the new transmission project.
“Further, the project will have detrimental economic and environmental impacts on real estate values, farming practices, natural springs, trout fishing, an elementary school, the Tim Cook Memorial Cross Country Course, businesses, the Owl’s Club, local government, and tourism in Franklin County,” she said.
The Maryland Public Service Commission approved Transource’s application to build in June 2020. Pennsylvania is pivotal in whether the project continues, or architects of it have to go back to the drawing board to find another solution.
“New transmission infrastructure is necessary to incorporate new energy sources into the market while maintaining system reliability, and the evidence clearly demonstrates that multi-state regional planning is the most effective way to meet these needs”, said Brian Weber, Transource senior vice president.
Landowners, lawmakers, and lawyers at the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate have been pushing back against the project since its inception. They have said they aren’t opposed to finding alternative solutions to create market efficiency, but rather, they have said to find another path.
“An appeal does not attempt to second guess the decision of an expert agency,” said Delores Krick, owner of Muddy Creek Meadows stables and president of Citizens to Stop Transource. “It merely judges whether the decision made comported with the law. Pennsylvania law is clear here — the PUC must find a need for the project. It did not. A court cannot overturn that and find a need. The Court is not an expert on utilities. Transource is pulling at straws using all utility ratepayers as their unlimited pocketbook. They have no reason to stop. We are confident they will not succeed.”
The path could have affected up to 200 landowners in Franklin and York counties.
“Transource filed the original applications to build the IEC project with the state commissions in December 2017,” according to Transource. “During the course of the regulatory proceedings, parties introduced several alternatives. Transource and PJM analyzed these alternative routes to ensure the project continued to meet the grid reliability and market efficiency requirements.”
In Pennsylvania, the IEC project involves the construction of two substations, one each in Franklin and York counties, and 24 miles of new 230 kV transmission line in Franklin County.