This question has been asked over and over and the answer is multi-faceted and much too long for Facebook.
First, let's acknowledge that existing transmission lines in the region are serving a purpose. They are providing a public service to provide electricity to customers. Public utilities have service territories, where they either generate power or buy power to serve their customers. They may own some of the transmission lines in their service territory, but sometimes another utility may own a line through their territory that was constructed to serve its own customers elsewhere. You would have to do some research to find out who owns any particular transmission line you see.
A utility owns both the transmission line and the existing easement or property it sits on. The easement has to be a certain size to meet safety code requirements. The bigger the lines, the bigger the easement. The utility has exclusive rights to the easement it owns, and the transmission lines on it. The company paid for and constructed that line, and it was only allowed to take the amount of land it needed for the line, and no more. The cost of this public service is reimbursed to the company by ratepayers who use it.
When the line needs repairs, the company that owns it is responsible. When the line needs to be upgraded, the company that owns it is responsible. Under current law, a company would have "first dibs" to upgrade or expand its line when it's needed. Some have asked why PSEG cannot use eminent domain to take another company's line and use the land for the MPRP? Utilities are immune to eminent domain in most cases. Isn't it ironic, since they can use it on us? Utilities are immune to eminent domain because they are providing a public service on that land. If another entity was allowed to take that land from them, there wouldn't be a transmission line and the public service of providing electricity would end. I'm sure you can appreciate that nobody is going to take the lines that serve you.
Therefore, PSEG has no right to take another company's transmission line that is in use and tear it down to erect their own line. Heck, PSEG is not even a legal public utility in Maryland and has no utility rights at all at this time. If that line needs to be rebuilt, the company that owns it has "first dibs" to rebuild it on the easement it already owns.
Some have asked why PSEG can't just hang some new wires on the existing towers owned by another utility? Because those towers were not designed to carry that extra circuit. Transmission towers are structurally engineered to carry the load they are designed for. They are the property of the utility that owns them to use to maintain and expand its own system when needed. If BGE was ordered to let PSEG use its transmission system for its own line, what would happen when BGE needed another line? It would have to take a new right-of-way, since PSEG had used theirs for its own line. PSEG cannot own a line that is on someone else's right-of-way. Furthermore, it would be unsafe to try to string some new lines on a tower that doesn't even have a place to put them. Sometimes, transmission companies think ahead a bit and build oversized towers that leave room for a future circuit to be added. That is not the case in the MPRP area.
So, what is PSEG doing in Maryland anyhow if they're not a public utility that serves customers in the state? Our regional transmission system is operated and planned by a regional transmission operator called PJM Interconnection. PJM makes sure the system is safe and reliable and that your lights stay on. PJM is constantly monitoring its system, which consists of transmission lines owned by many of its members, like BG&E, or PSEG. PJM runs a robust planning process and orders new lines, upgrades, and rebuilds that are recommended by its Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee (TEAC). TEAC meetings are held once a month, and are open to the public. But most of what PJM talks about is way too complicated for regular people and they are generally not involved.
Last year, PJM opened a new planning window to find transmission solutions to a reliability problem caused by 7,500MW of increased data center load in Northern Virginia, combined with 11,000MW of generation closing around the region. Numerous companies submitted 72 different project ideas for PJM's consideration. For big projects such as this, PJM's planning process is competitive. That means all those transmission ideas were competing with each other to be selected. PJM evaluated them for constructability and price, trying to find the best projects that solved the reliability problem for the cheapest price. In order to be competitive, some companies submitted their project ideas with financial cost caps that would guarantee a final price for the project, no matter what happens in the mean time. There are all sorts of ways to increase the price even with a cost cap, but I'm not going to get into that really complicated topic just now.
Maryland public utility BGE submitted a bunch of project ideas wrapped into a package in conjunction with other local public utilities. None of those projects had cost caps. While they had estimated costs attached, they are not held to the estimate. Spend as much as you want! One of the project ideas in this package was to rebuild existing transmission lines from Pennsylvania to a substation named Brighton. That project did not connect with the Doubs substation. It looked like this:
First, let's acknowledge that existing transmission lines in the region are serving a purpose. They are providing a public service to provide electricity to customers. Public utilities have service territories, where they either generate power or buy power to serve their customers. They may own some of the transmission lines in their service territory, but sometimes another utility may own a line through their territory that was constructed to serve its own customers elsewhere. You would have to do some research to find out who owns any particular transmission line you see.
A utility owns both the transmission line and the existing easement or property it sits on. The easement has to be a certain size to meet safety code requirements. The bigger the lines, the bigger the easement. The utility has exclusive rights to the easement it owns, and the transmission lines on it. The company paid for and constructed that line, and it was only allowed to take the amount of land it needed for the line, and no more. The cost of this public service is reimbursed to the company by ratepayers who use it.
When the line needs repairs, the company that owns it is responsible. When the line needs to be upgraded, the company that owns it is responsible. Under current law, a company would have "first dibs" to upgrade or expand its line when it's needed. Some have asked why PSEG cannot use eminent domain to take another company's line and use the land for the MPRP? Utilities are immune to eminent domain in most cases. Isn't it ironic, since they can use it on us? Utilities are immune to eminent domain because they are providing a public service on that land. If another entity was allowed to take that land from them, there wouldn't be a transmission line and the public service of providing electricity would end. I'm sure you can appreciate that nobody is going to take the lines that serve you.
Therefore, PSEG has no right to take another company's transmission line that is in use and tear it down to erect their own line. Heck, PSEG is not even a legal public utility in Maryland and has no utility rights at all at this time. If that line needs to be rebuilt, the company that owns it has "first dibs" to rebuild it on the easement it already owns.
Some have asked why PSEG can't just hang some new wires on the existing towers owned by another utility? Because those towers were not designed to carry that extra circuit. Transmission towers are structurally engineered to carry the load they are designed for. They are the property of the utility that owns them to use to maintain and expand its own system when needed. If BGE was ordered to let PSEG use its transmission system for its own line, what would happen when BGE needed another line? It would have to take a new right-of-way, since PSEG had used theirs for its own line. PSEG cannot own a line that is on someone else's right-of-way. Furthermore, it would be unsafe to try to string some new lines on a tower that doesn't even have a place to put them. Sometimes, transmission companies think ahead a bit and build oversized towers that leave room for a future circuit to be added. That is not the case in the MPRP area.
So, what is PSEG doing in Maryland anyhow if they're not a public utility that serves customers in the state? Our regional transmission system is operated and planned by a regional transmission operator called PJM Interconnection. PJM makes sure the system is safe and reliable and that your lights stay on. PJM is constantly monitoring its system, which consists of transmission lines owned by many of its members, like BG&E, or PSEG. PJM runs a robust planning process and orders new lines, upgrades, and rebuilds that are recommended by its Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee (TEAC). TEAC meetings are held once a month, and are open to the public. But most of what PJM talks about is way too complicated for regular people and they are generally not involved.
Last year, PJM opened a new planning window to find transmission solutions to a reliability problem caused by 7,500MW of increased data center load in Northern Virginia, combined with 11,000MW of generation closing around the region. Numerous companies submitted 72 different project ideas for PJM's consideration. For big projects such as this, PJM's planning process is competitive. That means all those transmission ideas were competing with each other to be selected. PJM evaluated them for constructability and price, trying to find the best projects that solved the reliability problem for the cheapest price. In order to be competitive, some companies submitted their project ideas with financial cost caps that would guarantee a final price for the project, no matter what happens in the mean time. There are all sorts of ways to increase the price even with a cost cap, but I'm not going to get into that really complicated topic just now.
Maryland public utility BGE submitted a bunch of project ideas wrapped into a package in conjunction with other local public utilities. None of those projects had cost caps. While they had estimated costs attached, they are not held to the estimate. Spend as much as you want! One of the project ideas in this package was to rebuild existing transmission lines from Pennsylvania to a substation named Brighton. That project did not connect with the Doubs substation. It looked like this:
This transmission idea wasn't just one transmission project but a series of transmission upgrades that were considered as a package. None of these lines connected to Doubs, which feeds power to Northern Virginia. We do not know why BGE didn't propose connecting to Doubs, and we don't really know why PJM selected PSEG's MPRP project instead. The only clue we have is PJM's project evaluation risk matrix.
PJM decided that PSEG's MPRP was the best project in this list, and they ordered it and assigned it to PSEG. PSEG is being held to its guarantee that it will have this project finished on time and on budget. It is in a big ol' hurry because, for PSEG, time is money.
Once PJM selects and orders a transmission project, it's like a momma bear with a cub. PJM will protect that transmission project and refuse to second guess itself at all costs. The only thing that can stop PJM is a denial by the state utility commission in the state(s) where the project is located. In that case, PJM will have to go back to the drawing board and start its planning process all over again. Because these are competitive projects, PJM can't just pick another one.
There have only been two instances where PJM has made a change to a transmission project it ordered. The first occurred several years ago when it was facing a denial of its planned Independence Energy Connection by the Maryland Public Service Commission. It got that far, folks, right up until decision time! In that instance, there was a locally-owned and operated transmission line that had recently been built that had room for another circuit (remember the planning ahead thing?). Citizens asked why PJM had assigned a whole new transmission line on new easements to a non-local transmission company similar to PSEG when there was an existing line with open space that could hold a new circuit on the existing towers. The Maryland PSC wanted to know also, and PJM and the transmission company fell on its sword and re-assigned that part of the project to the local utility to construct on its existing towers. However, there were other parts to this project in Western Pennsylvania that were not changed because there was no existing transmission line with room for another circuit. Only part of that project was changed, and the company continued trying to get approval from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania denied their permit and the entire project was shelved. Turns out the years-long delay in permitting obviated the project and it was no longer needed anyhow. The project was never built.
The second instance is happening right now. PJM selected a transmission line connecting West Virginia coal-fired power plants with Loudoun County, Virginia's "data center alley." A portion of this project is a greenfield line through western Loudoun on new easements. When PJM evaluated this project, it noted that obtaining approval for new easements in Loudoun might be a problem, so it created a "work around" on a different route, if needed. PJM planned for this project's route in Loudoun to be rejected. Just as PJM thought, the people in Loudoun opposed the line, and they used their money and political power to get their county government to demand PJM pull the ejector button and put the project on the alternate route. PJM is currently considering the re-route. However, this re-route is not exactly on "existing rights-of-way," no matter how they try to spin it. The re-route "along existing lines" expands the existing easement and takes more property from people on the existing line using eminent domain. The people on the re-route got mowed over by the important people in Loudoun who didn't want to have any impacts from new transmission to serve Loudoun's data centers. They were stabbed in the back and thrown under the bus in order to save the rich people in Virginia's wine and horse country. And they're going to remember it for a long, long time.
"Using existing rights-of-way" is not always the panacea it seems. It's basically a NIMBY argument and pushes impacts on to others. Even when a transmission line is rebuilt entirely on existing easements, there are still impacts from construction, as well as permanent impacts from having much higher voltage running on an easement you may be so unlucky to have on your property. Rebuilds need new access roads for construction. A new gravel road across your field, even temporary, will cause permanent and lasting impacts. Just try getting all the rock out of there afterwards, or fixing the compaction that has happened. You probably won't enjoy living with the construction traffic on it during construction either. A rebuild on the existing easement may take out more trees along the easement, proclaiming them "danger trees" to the new transmission line. It's a way of widening the easement without actually paying you anything. Rebuilds aren't fun for the people who are subject to them, and horrendous for people whose home gets gobbled up by an expanded easement.
The lesson here is that moving a planned transmission line to an existing easement has only happened under certain circumstances. The first is having space available to take a new line on existing towers. That isn't present with MPRP. The second was PJM having an alternate route already in mind. That also isn't present with MPRP.
Getting PJM to change its mind and cancel MPRP entirely in favor of some other project that has not even been proposed is a very heavy lift. So heavy, in fact, it may be nearly impossible. PJM will have to be forced into it, and that's not going to happen quickly, easily, or inexpensively. If you want to pursue this strategy, my advice is to hire a licensed engineer with experience and credentials working cases just like this before a regulatory commission to take a look at the PJM system and come up with an alternate plan. Citizens don't have the right credentials to design the transmission system and PJM will just ignore them (and the PSC will ignore them as well). You need to point to a viable plan that has been thoroughly vetted by a professional with experience designing the transmission system. Even then, PJM will fight you on this and attack your expert. He needs to be flameproof. But, if you're in it for the long haul, this is your avenue, and the choice is yours. It won't be quick. It won't be cheap. It won't be easy.
Perhaps by the time you're done fighting that very long battle (with no guarantee of success) the transmission line will have obviated itself. The data centers aren't going to wait around for a new extension cord that is mired in years of legal battle, they're going to go somewhere else with available power.
If you're going to find another solution for MPRP, make sure it's one that the entire community finds acceptable, otherwise you're playing into the NIMBY game PJM and PSEG hopes you will play. Nobody really wins that game. Someone alway gets stabbed in the back and tossed under the bus to save yourself. The transmission planners and companies want you to do this because they're the ones who win... they get to have their project and someone who has to live with it is miserable.
There are plenty of transmission projects that have been cancelled entirely without anyone being thrown to the wolves because the community came together and presented a united front... we won't have this here in our community in any way, shape, or form.
Good luck, MPRP opponents! Carry on!
Once PJM selects and orders a transmission project, it's like a momma bear with a cub. PJM will protect that transmission project and refuse to second guess itself at all costs. The only thing that can stop PJM is a denial by the state utility commission in the state(s) where the project is located. In that case, PJM will have to go back to the drawing board and start its planning process all over again. Because these are competitive projects, PJM can't just pick another one.
There have only been two instances where PJM has made a change to a transmission project it ordered. The first occurred several years ago when it was facing a denial of its planned Independence Energy Connection by the Maryland Public Service Commission. It got that far, folks, right up until decision time! In that instance, there was a locally-owned and operated transmission line that had recently been built that had room for another circuit (remember the planning ahead thing?). Citizens asked why PJM had assigned a whole new transmission line on new easements to a non-local transmission company similar to PSEG when there was an existing line with open space that could hold a new circuit on the existing towers. The Maryland PSC wanted to know also, and PJM and the transmission company fell on its sword and re-assigned that part of the project to the local utility to construct on its existing towers. However, there were other parts to this project in Western Pennsylvania that were not changed because there was no existing transmission line with room for another circuit. Only part of that project was changed, and the company continued trying to get approval from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania denied their permit and the entire project was shelved. Turns out the years-long delay in permitting obviated the project and it was no longer needed anyhow. The project was never built.
The second instance is happening right now. PJM selected a transmission line connecting West Virginia coal-fired power plants with Loudoun County, Virginia's "data center alley." A portion of this project is a greenfield line through western Loudoun on new easements. When PJM evaluated this project, it noted that obtaining approval for new easements in Loudoun might be a problem, so it created a "work around" on a different route, if needed. PJM planned for this project's route in Loudoun to be rejected. Just as PJM thought, the people in Loudoun opposed the line, and they used their money and political power to get their county government to demand PJM pull the ejector button and put the project on the alternate route. PJM is currently considering the re-route. However, this re-route is not exactly on "existing rights-of-way," no matter how they try to spin it. The re-route "along existing lines" expands the existing easement and takes more property from people on the existing line using eminent domain. The people on the re-route got mowed over by the important people in Loudoun who didn't want to have any impacts from new transmission to serve Loudoun's data centers. They were stabbed in the back and thrown under the bus in order to save the rich people in Virginia's wine and horse country. And they're going to remember it for a long, long time.
"Using existing rights-of-way" is not always the panacea it seems. It's basically a NIMBY argument and pushes impacts on to others. Even when a transmission line is rebuilt entirely on existing easements, there are still impacts from construction, as well as permanent impacts from having much higher voltage running on an easement you may be so unlucky to have on your property. Rebuilds need new access roads for construction. A new gravel road across your field, even temporary, will cause permanent and lasting impacts. Just try getting all the rock out of there afterwards, or fixing the compaction that has happened. You probably won't enjoy living with the construction traffic on it during construction either. A rebuild on the existing easement may take out more trees along the easement, proclaiming them "danger trees" to the new transmission line. It's a way of widening the easement without actually paying you anything. Rebuilds aren't fun for the people who are subject to them, and horrendous for people whose home gets gobbled up by an expanded easement.
The lesson here is that moving a planned transmission line to an existing easement has only happened under certain circumstances. The first is having space available to take a new line on existing towers. That isn't present with MPRP. The second was PJM having an alternate route already in mind. That also isn't present with MPRP.
Getting PJM to change its mind and cancel MPRP entirely in favor of some other project that has not even been proposed is a very heavy lift. So heavy, in fact, it may be nearly impossible. PJM will have to be forced into it, and that's not going to happen quickly, easily, or inexpensively. If you want to pursue this strategy, my advice is to hire a licensed engineer with experience and credentials working cases just like this before a regulatory commission to take a look at the PJM system and come up with an alternate plan. Citizens don't have the right credentials to design the transmission system and PJM will just ignore them (and the PSC will ignore them as well). You need to point to a viable plan that has been thoroughly vetted by a professional with experience designing the transmission system. Even then, PJM will fight you on this and attack your expert. He needs to be flameproof. But, if you're in it for the long haul, this is your avenue, and the choice is yours. It won't be quick. It won't be cheap. It won't be easy.
Perhaps by the time you're done fighting that very long battle (with no guarantee of success) the transmission line will have obviated itself. The data centers aren't going to wait around for a new extension cord that is mired in years of legal battle, they're going to go somewhere else with available power.
If you're going to find another solution for MPRP, make sure it's one that the entire community finds acceptable, otherwise you're playing into the NIMBY game PJM and PSEG hopes you will play. Nobody really wins that game. Someone alway gets stabbed in the back and tossed under the bus to save yourself. The transmission planners and companies want you to do this because they're the ones who win... they get to have their project and someone who has to live with it is miserable.
There are plenty of transmission projects that have been cancelled entirely without anyone being thrown to the wolves because the community came together and presented a united front... we won't have this here in our community in any way, shape, or form.
Good luck, MPRP opponents! Carry on!
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