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Power line proposal draws mild response
A 500-kilovolt transmission line that might be routed across northern Loudoun brought only a few Lovettsville-area citizens to an Aug. 14 public meeting in Lovettsville.
The proposed route runs east-west just north of Lovettsville along an existing power line route, partially owned by Dominion Virginia Power, and partially by Allegheny Energy. The existing Allegheny power line carries 138 kilovolts. If it chooses this route, the company will upgrade that corridor to carry a double 500-kilovolt line on steel towers, with the 138-kilovolt line running below them.
The existing wooden poles are 85 feet high, said Allegheny's Mark Nitowski. The poles to replace them would be about 30 feet taller and would be the new "H Frame" poles – not the visually overpowering lattice structures -- built of weathering steel, which oxidizes and turns dark in hopes that the poles will blend into the background.
The project, if chosen over a northern option in Maryland, would require widening the right of way by about 100 feet, Nitowski said.
Sheriff's Deputy Charles Wyant, a Lovettsville resident, found his farm on a map of the proposed power line. He is also on the board of directors of the Lovettsville Game Protective Association. The existing power line crosses a corner of the association's 69-acre farm northwest of Lovettsville.
"No issues," he scribbled on the map by his farm's location just off Long Lane.
"It's not the power company's fault we have overbuilt our power grid," Wyant said. "It's a no-brainer -- more houses need more power."
The project is part of a joint undertaking of American Electric Power and Allegheny.
The AEP portion is a 250-mile, 750-kilovolt line from a substation near St. Albans, W.Va., to Allegheny's Bedington substation north of Martinsburg, W.Va.
Allegheny would then take over and extend its double 500-kilovolt line from Bedington to an as-yet-unbuilt Kemptown substation in Frederick County, Md.
The southern option brings that line south from Martinsburg to Blue Ridge Acres, on the West Virginia side of the state line, where it would make a 90-degree turn east and cross Loudoun, north of Lovettsville, for about nine miles. It would exit Loudoun just west of Point of Rocks and continue on to the Kemptown substation south of Frederick.
Allegheny is encouraging its customers to conserve, Nitowski said. The lines could bring in power from coal-fired plants in the Ohio River Valley, he said. They can also carry power from renewable sources, when they become available.
Wherever the power comes from, he said, there has to be a way to deliver it to customers.
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