A report TrAILCo and affiliates filed May 17 with Public Service Commission of West Virginia failed to lay out a plan, as ordered, for upgrading its transmission facilities, according to a July 17 filing by the Coalition for Reliable Power.
"The FirstEnergy companies did not provide a plan for reconductoring and upgrading, as directed by the Commission," CRP wrote in its filing. The organization describes itself as a citizens' group dedicated to increasing the reliability of the West Virginia and U.S. electrical systems.
"Most of their five pages of text were devoted to their claim that they have no plan," CRP wrote.
When the PSC issued the siting certificate on Aug. 1, 2008, authorizing the construction of the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line across northern West Virginia, it ordered that, within one year of the time the line was energized, TrAILCo and its affiliates would "submit a plan for reconductoring or otherwise upgrading their respective transmission facilities."
But as PSC Staff Attorney John Auville recounted in a later filing, "A major point of contention during the litigation of that certificate filing was whether the transmission lines already in place, specifically the Mt. Storm-Doubs line and the Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line, could be reconductored and/or upgraded in some manner, thus obviating the need for the TrAIL transmission line."
The 100-mile line that stretched east from Mt. Storm substation in the Potomac Highlands to Doubs substation in Maryland was built in 1966 and, by the time TrAIL was proposed, was almost famously in need of an upgrade. The 45-mile Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line, just west of that, was of similar vintage and condition.
But the TrAIL partners argued at the time and the commission ended up agreeing in August 2008 that upgrading as an alternative to a new line was not feasible because the lines were relied upon too heavily to be placed out of service for any length of time. TrAIL coming online would be an opportunity to perform maintenance and upgrades that hadn't previously been possible.
TrAIL was fully energized on May 19, 2011.
And on May 17, 2012, FirstEnergy subsidiaries TrAILCo, Monongahela Power Co. and Potomac Edison Co. filed a report that was described in its cover letter as "the transmission facility condition assessment required in the Commission's Aug. 1, 2008 order (in this case)."
The five-page report describes the physical condition of the transmission equipment, according to the CRP's filing, but does not respond to the order.
There is just one relevant reference in the report, CRP said, quoting, "Based on the most recent condition, reliability and capacity assessments of the EHV (extra-high voltage) facilities in West Virginia, there are no immediate or short-term plans … for upgrading the structures, conductor or hardware on the EHV facilities in West Virginia. The companies will continue to implement their inspection and maintenance programs and to participate actively in (regional grid operator PJM Interconnection's ongoing transmission planning) process."
CRP also said that, although engineering reports that are easily accessible online have shown crumpling of steel lattice towers like the damage three FirstEnergy towers took in the June 29 derecho, illustrated in photographs the utility distributed widely, the utility did not make note of any vulnerability in its May filing.
CRP asks that TrAILCo and its corporate affiliates be required to file a report that responds to the commission's 2008 order.
FirstEnergy hadn't yet seen CRP's filing when this story was posted, according to FirstEnergy spokesman Scott Surgeoner, and will review it and respond after receiving it.
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