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September/October 2009

THE PATH MODEL

If the economy rebounds in 2010 as expected, load growth will likely resume in 2010 as well. PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states and the District of Columbia, expects summer peak usage to grow at an average rate of 1.7 percent as the economy recovers. To meet that load growth, PJM’s members will need to build additional power supply resources and transmission lines.

PJM is not alone in the need to meet growth. Spurred by increasing strain on the current system, the urgency to connect renewable energy sources to the grid, and appropriate incentives from the federal government, transmission owners and RTOs are executing ambitious plans to expand and reinforce our nation’s electric power grid. Increasingly, transmission projects are multistate endeavors, and the capital and expertise required for these initiatives will likely spawn business models with many partners working together.

Affi liates of American Electric Power (AEP) and Allegheny Energy, both members of PJM, recently filed with state commissions in three states to build the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH), a proposed 765-kilovolt (KV) extra-high-voltage transmission line that will extend nearly 275 miles from the Amos substation in southwestern West Virginia to a new substation in Frederick County, MD.  This unique partnership can serve as a model for getting ambitious interstate projects built in the future.

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  © 2009 Edison Electric Institute. All rights reserved.