PSC Staff Submit Further Evidence Against Need For MARL Transmission Line

West Virginia Public Service Commission staff have submitted more evidence that a transmission line cutting through four West Virginia counties is not needed.  

Staff engineer Daniel Egnatoff testified that, “The basis of the analysis that supports the need for the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link Project was outdated before the application was filed” and has only become more outdated since.    

In his testimony submitted to the commission Tuesday, Egnatoff said that the increased need for transmission capacity identified by regional energy manager PJM was based on an overestimation of data center requirements and planned generator retirements.   

“By its own admission, PJM makes no effort to validate load forecasts submitted to it by LSEs (Load-Serving Entities),” he said. “PJM does not evaluate or account for these utilities’ vetting processes for prospective large-load customers, nor does it have knowledge of the standards to which these prospective customers are held.” 

Egnatoff said that the vetting process of some LSEs is overly permissive, allowing customers that are unlikely to actually take service from the grid to be factored into load forecasts. 

Developer NextEra Energy applied Jan. 30 to construct a new 107.5-mile-long transmission line from Pennsylvania through West Virginia to Virginia. Public comment sessions were held in all four of the affected counties of Monongalia, Preston, Mineral and Hampshire in June. The commission set regulatory hearing dates for late October and early November, with deadline to file direct testimony by Sept. 8.       

In August staff recommended that the application be delayed by at least 60 days or dismissed entirely, a recommendation that the commission declined.  

Egnatoff said there is little evidence of the project’s benefit to West Virginians and the most likely outcome of the MARL project not being built is the energizing of fewer data centers in Virginia.  

In preparing to give testimony, Egnatoff visited approximately 80 landowners at their properties, all of which were located within the study area for the MARL Project.