Well it’s been a while and Dominion is still going fast forward to building the 500KV power line. As I posted when I was trying to contrast my opposition with Delegate Marshall’s non-opposition statement, Dominion is playing the classic “whack a mole” game like a master.
This issue should be on the front burner (or at least on the stove) of all Western Prince William residents (including Delegate Marshall who seems to have other items on his agenda. His Senate campaign web site has lots of stuff about gays, abortion, and supporting most of Bush’s failed policies).
The problem lies beyond Dominion and our state (floodguy - 5/30/2008 12:09:04 AM)
Transmission planning in the Mid-Atlantic region is controlled by a quasi-governmental authority, known as a regional transmission authority (RTO). As you may already know, our RTO is the PJM Interconnection.
Unfortunately, unlike transmission, generation planning is controlled by states. Stronger clean air laws to our north, are making older power plants less or unprofitable, forcing some to shutdown. Likewise, stricter clean air laws are forcing replacement generation proposals with costly modifications. Consequently, new generation isn't replacing the retiring generation. Since EEC cannot be mandated on the end-user, and since the RTO only considers transmission, state utilities to our north have only one option.
Where certain generation is too costly to operate, state utilities are finding it cheaper to meet their customer needs by importing electricity thru transmission. And by shutting down the more polluting (and less profitable) power plants, the same utilities are finding it much easier to meet their state's higher RPS goals in the process.
Like in W.Va, OH and PA, Virginia clean air laws and RPS standards are a bit lower than those states to the north. This was not just encouraged by Dominion, industry in general was behind this. Please see the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the DOE NIETC website.
This decommissioning of generation is leading to the importation of transmission. D.C. is shutting down its last two power plants (Benning and Buzzard Point). Within the last 18 months, 7 power plants in New Jersey filed for retirement, which will be effective w/i the next 4 years. Soon enough, lawyers and environmentalists will undoubtedly force the shutdown of the Potomac River coal plant in the city of Alexandria. This was the reason PEPCO sold the plant to Mirant in 2000. For all we know, the new Wise County proposal may be the anticipated replacement for soon-to-be retiring Mirant plant.
A domino affect, an overload of demand cascading in the grid from the north, southward, is what is happening. In 2005, NERC assessment of the Virginia's power needs, was one of "no concern." This all changed with the passage after the EPAct 2005 and the mandated transmission study in August 2005. Today, Virginia has two 500kv applications, one new coal plant application, three gas generation applications (and a 4th proposal), and a permit filed with the NRC for North Anna.
Just like Virginia, W.Va., Ohio and western PA are being used to meet the power needs of those living along the i-95 corridor, from D.C. to NYC. These green-minded folks have been pushing their politicians to give them cleaner air and greener generation, all at the expense of those living in states less conscious of the environment and smart energy planning.
Had Virginia passed equally tough clean air laws and equal RPS as those states who currently need VA's electricity, or better yet, if generation was controlled by a regional RPS, Virginia would not be made to shoulder the burden for other states who refuse to conserve electricity and build their own sufficient power supplies.
This problem is larger than Virginia and was created beyond that of Dominion Power. Fault Dominion for telling us the news at the 11th hour, which effectively shut the door on non-transmission alternatives, but the real reason falls in the hands of those states to the north and the DOE's inability to foresee the problem and devise a better solution other than its one-side national tranmission corridor.
If transmission planning can cross state lines, then generation planning should also. Regional generation planning is the only solution to fix the transmission problem the east and far west faces. Even the DOE agrees on this and furthermore, Energy Asst Sec. Kolevar believes that interstate generation planning is the only way which to override the DOE's national transmission corridor designation.
The long-term solution to break the trend: EEC, smartgrid, distributed resources (aka distributed generation), and regional RPS.
Fantastic detailed analysis (snolan - 5/30/2008 10:45:01 AM)
We do need to block Dominion to raise the awareness of this issue to a larger regional and even national level though. If we let Dominion (and other power companies) simply transfer from Northern coal production to Southern coal production, and transmit through our backyards... we don't actually solve any problems and worse, the issue fades from public awareness.
While it will be unpleasant in the extreme, perhaps having a few more power grid outages in the NorthEast will wake people up to where their power comes from. We need vastly more de-centralized power generation... sadly that does not lend itself to high profit margins, so the privatized power companies are not interested; despite regulation.
We (as a nation) have put this off so long that I am afraid that nuclear power will have to be part of the combined source power generation solution we end up with. Yes, we should do solar, and wind, and micro-hydro as well. Yes we need to focus on conservation and lower power consumption too; but as we shut down coal (which can never be clean), we are going to need more than all the above can provide; so I am afraid we'll need more nuclear power too.
The Piedmont Environmental Council has a great compilation of “post hearing briefs” here in their Executive Summary of 78 pages of reasons to halt the power line. An aside is that Delegate Marshall’s State Corporation Commission (SCC) statement’s main points, all pointed towards how to manage the impact AFTER the 500 KV line is built, bury it, pay the home owners, make sure the SCC does it’s job, are not included. My points were and are, stop the powerline, conserve energy, enhance demand management, really publicize good numbers relating to the real need.