Utilities proposing a multistate power line filed a request Tuesday to withdraw their application to build the 31-mile northern Virginia portion of the line, stating their own energy forecasts show the line is not immediately needed.
PATH Allegheny Virginia Transmission Corp. said it would refile the application in 2010 based on updated load forecasts. The original application was based on 2014 energy-demand forecasts.
The State Corporation Commission has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to consider the motion.
Allegheny Energy Inc. and partner American Electric Power have proposed building the 275-mile line from AEP’s coal-fired John Amos plant in West Virginia, across 31 miles of northern Virginia, to a substation near Kemptown, Md. The power line is amid various stages of regulatory review in West Virginia and Maryland.
A spokesman for the utilities did not immediately return messages left by The Associated Press.
Both utilities have argued that the 765-kilovolt transmission line is necessary to ensure reliability of the mid-Atlantic region’s electrical distribution system past 2014. The line was authorized in 2007 by PJM Interconnection, which manages the grid system for a 13-state region. (AP)
