Regulators hold hearing on PATH line
American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy asked the State Corporation Commission to extend proceedings on its request for the Virginia segment of the $2.1 billion Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, or PATH. Regulators indicated they plan to rule on the delay soon.
The proposed 275-mile, 765-kilovolt power line would run from AEP's John Amos plant in West Virginia, 31 miles across three counties in northern Virginia, to a substation near Kemptown, Maryland.
The companies want to update the application with new projections on increased energy demands along the East Coast by 2015 that were released in late December.
They have argued that the power line is needed to feed the Northeast's growing need for energy. The analyses found that PATH continues to be the best fix for overloading that's expected to start in 2015, the companies said.
PJM Interconnection, the transmission authority that manages the grid system for a 13-state region, said overloads and other issues could trigger blackouts and brownouts in the region by mid-2015 if the line is not built.
However, opponents of the line have argued that electrical demand projections are inaccurate and that the line would only serve to continue the use of coal for electrical generation.
Similar requests are pending in West Virginia and Maryland.
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Big prizes awarded to European electricity prediction specialists
LONDON - Three European prediction specialists have won prizes worth €2 million for developing the most accurate predictions of electricity flow through a grid
The three winners of the Big Data Technologies Horizon Prize received their awards at a ceremony on 12th November in Austria.
The first prize of €1.2 million went to Professor José Vilar from Spain, while Belgians Sofie Verrewaere and Yann-Aël Le Borgne came in joint second place and won €400,000 each.
The challenge was open to individuals groups and organisations from countries taking part in the EU’s research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020.
Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and…
