Pennsylvania power grid not keeping up with needs

Don’t tempt fate. These are the words of David Taylor, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association. He is one of many advocates asking the state’s governor, Legislature, and Public Utility Commission (PUC) to take seriously the specter of Pennsylvania’s aging electric infrastructure. “We’re not talking about the lights going out on one particular day,” he said. “We’re talking about the reliability of power.”

Central Penn Business Journal’s Jim Ryan writes that advocates say electricity infrastructure has taken a backseat to alternative energy and rate caps. Those mean less if electricity can not get from power sources to consumers and businesses. This will not happen without new transmission lines. Pennsylvania needs to strengthen its power grid if the lights are going to stay on, Taylor said. This is important to prevent the state’s economic growth from being undermined. It’s also key to supporting businesses, including manufacturers, still the largest contributors to gross domestic product in Pennsylvania, he said. “I don’t want to give anyone more reasons to turn away from Pennsylvania,” Taylor said.

He is leading efforts for other associations, businesses, and power companies to push for new infrastructure and power production through a group called Pennsylvanians for Reliable Power. Success so far has been muted, he said. Michael Love, president and chief executive officer of the Harrisburg-based Energy Association of Pennsylvania, agreed that electricity infrastructure, including high-voltage transmission lines, has been ignored for some time. “You’re not going to get where you want to go without building infrastructure,” he said.

Contrary to some assertions, the state hasn’t ignored transmission lines, said Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for the PUC. “The state considers all of the issues as important, including electricity, natural gas, water quality,” she said. Companies can also apply for state grants and loans to construct transmission lines as part of Governor Ed Rendell’s energy-independence strategy, according to the state Department of Community and Economic Development. The loans and grants are part of $165 million for renewable- and alternative-energy projects.

The PUC is reviewing several power-line projects, including one in York County. Metropolitan Edison Co., a division of Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp., has plans to build a power line there. The line connects existing ones with a substation in East Manchester and Conewago townships, according to the PUC. The line is less than a mile long, runs on existing rights-of-way and connects larger lines with a new building, said Scott Surgeoner, a FirstEnergy and Met-Ed spokesman. It’s not a big-capacity line, he said. Infrastructure, however, can only go so long before it needs to be replaced, he said. “Especially considering no transmission lines have been built since the 1970s, and growth has occurred in the state - both in residential and commercial areas,” Surgeoner said.

Other projects are larger in scale, but none are planned for Central Pennsylvania, Kocher said. Allegheny Energy Inc., based near Pittsburgh, proposed 237 miles of transmission lines starting in Greene and Washington counties, and running through West Virginia and into Virginia. Allentown-based PPL Electric Utilities also proposed a line through the northeastern part of the state into New Jersey. Administrative law judges are expected to rule soon on the Allegheny Energy line, Kocher said. That will form part of the evidence for a decision by the PUC commissioners. “It takes months and years to determine what’s needed where,” said Paula DuPont-Kidd, a spokeswoman for PJM Interconnection.

PJM, based in Norristown, Montgomery County, is a regional group that coordinates wholesale electricity and recommends new facilities in a 13-state area, including Pennsylvania. Transmission companies then seek permission from the PUC to build those facilities. New lines and power plants are needed, DuPont-Kidd said. Each year, demand grows by more than 1 percent. In ten years, the region will need 16 percent more electricity to power businesses, homes, factories and other facilities, she said.

That congestion will require more lines to make the power grid more efficient, Love said. Electricity prices should drop through reduced congestion and increased market competition, he said. “It’s not a line on a bill,” Love said, “but that inefficiency is there, and it costs companies hundreds of millions a year.”