Allegheny Energy Inc. (AYE) and American Electric Power (AEP), the joint venture partners for the multi-state transmission line, have proceeded with its PATH (Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline) project in Maryland and Virginia. The companies have taken several actions which will further align the project’s regulatory review activities and support their efforts to complete the project by June 2014.
The PATH project consists of a 765-kilovolt transmission line extending from the Amos Substation in Putnam County, West Virginia, to the proposed Kemptown Substation near New Market, Maryland.
The companies made two filings in Maryland and Virginia, designed to coordinate the procedural schedules and to enable the respective commissions to consider the need for the project based on the same facts. In the first filing, Allegheny’s affiliate, the Potomac Edison Company, submitted a new application to the Maryland Public Service Commission requesting authorization to construct the 20-mile Maryland segment.
In an another application, the PATH Allegheny Virginia Transmission Corporation, another Allegheny affiliate, requested the Virginia State Corporation Commission for withdrawal of its application and granting an immediate suspension of the current procedural schedule. PATH plans to file a new application for the 31-mile Virginia segment in early 2010.
The West Virginia Public Service Commission is also reviewing an application for authorization to construct the PATH project in West Virginia, with hearings scheduled for October 2010.
Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power remain committed to the PATH project. According to the most recent analysis by regional grid operator PJM Interconnection, PATH is needed by June 2014 to resolve reliability issues on the existing transmission system.
Headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Allegheny Energy is an electric utility company with over $3 billion in annual revenues. The company is engaged in both regulated electricity and natural gas distribution utility operations as well as in the unregulated wholesale energy markets. It owns and operates generating facilities and supplies electricity to approximately 1.6 million customers spread across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.
American Electric, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest public utility holding companies catering to approximately 5.2 million customers spread over 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S.
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