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Study Shows Corridor Is Congested
By Elizabeth Cooper - Observer-Dispatch, Aug. 8, 2006
A U.S. Department of Energy study to be made public today classifies the area from Central New York to New York City as among the most energy congested in the nation.
That conclusion is among the steps that could help New York Regional Interconnect in its bid to build a high-voltage power line from Marcy to the Lower Hudson Valley.
But U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford, and a top U.S. Energy Department official said Monday the classification won't necessarily benefit any one company's proposal.
How the federal designation plays out in coming months will be watched closely by Mohawk Valley residents unhappy with New York Regional Interconnect's plan to build a 1,200-megawatt line with 115-foot-tall towers through South Utica, New Hartford and the Sauquoit Valley.
Lee Wratten, owner of Valley Signs in Clayville, which is located next to the proposed New York Regional Interconnection route, said he didn't believe transmission lines were the only solution to the energy problems in downstate New York.
"If they can do it, why can't downstate New York generate more of their own power?" he said. "What is it with these endless extension cords?"
The National Electric Transmission Congestion Study's executive summary, obtained a day in advance by the Observer-Dispatch, classifies a broad swath of terrain from Central New York to New York City, then south along the coast of the mid-Atlantic states to the Washington, D.C. area, as an area where power demands are high and availability limited.
The study defines that area and a region in Southern California between Los Angeles and San Diego as the two places with the most critical energy congestion problems in the nation.
Now that the areas of congestion have been identified:
!The Energy Department will create corridors where transmission facilities could be placed to alleviate the problems.
!Within those corridors, federal laws relating to power lines could trump state laws in certain instances. In essence, approval of the New York Regional Interconnect proposal could be decided not in Albany by the state Public Service Commission, but in Washington by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The official release of the study today will begin a 60-day period of public comment in which interested parties can weigh in on whether corridors would be in the public interest and if so, where they should go.
New York Regional Interconnect spokesman Jonathan Pierce said Monday he could not yet comment on the federal government's findings.
"We have not seen the study but we look forward to evaluating the study and its result," he said.
The privately owned company says its high-voltage power line would help alleviate congestion between Marcy and the lower Hudson Valley. It has applied to have its route designated as one of the corridors.
But the study's findings might not have the effect power-line officials hope for:
!Kevin Kolevar, the Energy Department's director of the Office of Electricity Delivery, said the fact that the company's proposed route falls within the congested region does not automatically mean its plan will gain approval.
"The designation of a corridor does not empower any application to the construction of a line," Kolevar said. "There is a long and appropriately involved process that any party seeking to build a line would have to undertake with their state to seek approval for that line."
!Boehlert said the study has "no relation whatever" to the power company's proposal and that he would continue to fight against the proposal.
!Mike Steiger, executive director of the power-line opposition group Upstate New York Citizens Alliance, said his group would continue to fight the proposal at the federal level.
"Even if this is showing that we need to provide power from Upstate New York to the New York City area, we do not believe the NYRI proposal is the appropriate solution," he said. "There are much better solutions available."
In Oneida County and to the south, New York Regional Interconnect's route would run along the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad tracks. The tracks run through numerous communities including New York Mills, South Utica, Washington Mills, Chadwicks, Sauquoit, Clayville, Cassville and Waterville.
The area the Energy Department says is congested is very broad, running roughly from Marcy to Albany and southward in a wide swath.
The study doesn't prejudge where corridors will be or what they will look like, Kolevar said. Rather, the study demonstrates the areas in which there are congestion problems, he said.
Kolevar said his department has not yet determined how wide such corridors would be.
"The corridors will be designed to be large enough so as to accommodate a variety of transmission routes," he said.
Kolevar said that the designation of corridors did not mean that transmission lines would be constructed there any time soon, and said there are other ways of solving the congestion problem, such as through new forms of generation and conservation.
"The identification of congested areas does not mean that the only solution is transmission," he said. "Once those corridors are set, we are agnostic as to how congestion is met."
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