Bodman and the stupid grid

While the GridWeek gurus were pondering the coming of the smart grid, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman came to the meeting to make some news about the old-fashioned stupid grid.

Bodman, in a "state-of-the-grid" speech on the final day of GridWeek, announced that his agency has proposed two draft designations of "national interest electric transmission corridors," as mandated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). These designations would allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, after what are sure to be long and contentious proceedings, to override state and local objections to the siting of new interstate, high-voltage power lines.

"These draft designations," said Bodman in a written statement, "set us on the path to modernize our constrained and congested electric power infrastructure." Bodman said that the U.S. grid is "aging and stressed. Simply put, it is no longer adequate the meet the needs of the 21st century."

The corridors that the DOE proposes (Figure 2) are no surprise to anyone who followed the debates following the August 2003 great Northeast blackout and the western electricity market meltdown in 2000–2001. They represent the DOE's first proposed designations. There could be more.

 

One corridor is in the East; the other in the Southwest. The proposed "Mid-Atlantic Area National Corridor" includes all of New Jersey, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, and counties in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and Virginia. The "Southwest Area National Corridor" includes counties in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

The Mid-Atlantic corridor is designed to facilitate movement of power from Ohio and West Virginia to the PJM Interconnection, which serves markets in the Northeast. American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy, which had competing transmission proposals for the region, recently combined their efforts, and the DOE plan would push that proposal.

Lesson learned and applied

Ironically, it was the failure of a plan in the late 1980s and early 1990s to move power from West Virginia (which has a surplus of generation) to New Jersey (which was short of capacity) across Pennsylvania (which essentially derived no benefits from the project) that highlighted the problems of interstate electric transmission. Pennsylvania essentially killed the project.

The Southwest corridor would help move power from Arizona and Nevada to Southern California, which faces numerous points of congestion.

The corridor designations are likely to be controversial, particularly in the Mid-Atlantic region. Opponents in Virginia have already derailed a plan by Dominion Virginia Power for a high-voltage power line across some pristine and history-rich territory.

The DOE announcement backs into an acknowledgement of the politics of the issue: "The department recognizes the broad public interest in this process and therefore, though not required by statute, is issuing draft designations in order to allow additional opportunities for review and comment by affected states, regional entities, and the general public." The agency could have simply designated the corridors but realized that a unilateral action would set off a political firestorm.

Given Democratic control of Congress, it is a good bet that there will be hearings on the corridor designations. According to the DOE announcement, there will be a 60-day comment period once the proposals show up in the Federal Register. The DOE also said it will hold public meetings in the D.C. area and in San Diego and New York City.

Plan has some fans

The DOE's decision to propose corridors and provide an opportunity for comment drew praise from some state regulators. North Carolina's Sam J. Ervin IV, a Democrat and one of the savviest of state commissioners, said, "Making preliminary designations and providing further opportunity for comment by States and others balances the need for the Energy Department to carry out its statutory responsibility with an acknowledgement of the inherent complexities and sensitivities that this process involves."

The political nature of the process became immediately apparent. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), who represents the Catskills and Hudson Valley area, told the Associated Press, "The federal government is continuing to try to usurp state authority and override the Constitution." Hinchey is fighting a proposed high-voltage transmission line intended to bring power from upstate through his district to transmission-constrained New York City.

Republican Reps. Frank Wolf and Tom Davis of Virginia, who represent the folks in the corridors in the original—and now abandoned—Dominion route, have introduced a bill that would roll back the authority given to the federal government by EPAct. They cite a violation of states' rights in the 2005 law.