NYISO Kills 180 Mile Transmission Project

I’ll let the words of the story speak for themselves:

“ALBANY, NY — In a dramatic and unexpected move, the lawyer for the company that has been seeking permission to build a powerline in the region for more than three years, suddenly said his company was withdrawing its application.

The stunning turn of events came in the midst of a hearing of the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), during which details for the 180-mile proposed line were being examined. The plan, proposed by New York Regional Interconnection (NYRI), was first announced in the spring of 2006. The news of the withdrawal came on April 3.”

Here is a link to the full story.

The contrast between PATH and the New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI) power line is very revealing.

NYISO is dominated by electricity purchasers, the biggest of which is Consolidated Edison, New York City’s huge utility.  Con Ed, through NYISO, got an NYISO rule established that 80% of the untilities in the interconnect had to accept the cost of the transmission lines before NYISO would approve the lines.  The power line company appealed the decision to FERC, but FERC supported the rule.

In PJM, our interconnect, AEP dominates the organization.  AEP is a power producer.  AEP is about the only company, besides Allegheny Energy, that will benefit from PATH.  All the consumer utilities in PJM will be paying extra costs for the PATH electricity, and all the other power generators on the east coast will become less competitive with AEP/Allegheny.  Because AEP/Allegheny dominate PJM policy making, they can cram PATH down everyone else’s throats.

Not so in NY where power consuming utilities dominate NYISO.

The days of the Cheney inspired mega power lines are numbered.  The New York Regional Interconnection went down.  PATH is going down soon.