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State PUC must still OK a 500,000-volt line to connect to substation in New Jersey.
PPL Electric Utilities has been authorized by PJM Interconnection to build a 500,000-volt transmission line by 2012 to connect a substation at its Susquehanna nuclear generating station to a substation in Essex County, N.J., PPL announced on Friday.
Final approval of the Pennsylvania portion of the line must come from the state Public Utility Commission.
PPL will be responsible for lines from the station in Salem Township to the Pennsylvania border at the Delaware River, PPL spokesman George Lewis said. There, it must connect with a line built by utility companies in New Jersey and Ohio to the Roseland substation near Newark.
The line, however, will connect to various substations generally along the path. PJM has mandated two 230-kilovolt substations through which it must run: the Lackawanna station near Blakely and a new Jefferson station, PJM spokeswoman Paula DuPont-Kidder said.
Citing a 2003 blackout that escalated from a line in Ohio sagging into a tree, officials said the new lines are designed to ensure reliability by increasing connections to the grid. PJM, an independent company that manages the electrical grid across 13 mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia, also authorized another 500,000-volt line from West Virginia into Maryland.
PPL’s portion of the construction would cost roughly $326 million, which would be passed on to all PJM customers by petitioning to federal regulators for transmission rate increases.
Lewis said the authorizations had no connection to a recent announcement by PPL that it is considering adding a third nuclear generator at the Susquehanna site. He added that the line would continue to be used if the two existing nuclear generators aren’t granted the license renewals PPL is seeking. The license for the Unit 1 reactor will expire in 2022, and the Unit 2 reactor license expires in 2024.
The lines would run along the massive electrical towers, but Lewis was unsure whether the project would include new construction. “It could be new construction; it could be following existing lines … It could be a combination of both,” he said.
He said there will be a time for public comment, and state regulatory agencies will have input in the environmental and siting decisions. Environmental groups, residents and local officials may oppose the line, which will cross the scenic Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
Norristown-based PJM, which serves roughly 50 million customers, has no regulatory authority, but its opinion matters to state regulators, who will consider the projects for approval. However, a law passed in 2005 gives the federal government overriding authorization in specially designated corridors. The two lines, along with another authorized by PJM last year, would be built in one of two special areas the federal Department of Energy proposed.
PJM has projected electrical load violations will begin on 23 lines in 2013 if steps aren’t taken to reduce that demand, DuPont-Kidder said. She added that demand is rising in some areas where old plants going offline aren’t being replaced with new plants, such as New Jersey.
“If you don’t have the power plants right where they’re needed, you need to move it,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.