For Immediate Release

Data Demonstrates Dominion/Allegheny Transmission Line Not Needed

(Warrenton, VA - June 27, 2008) Opponents of a proposed high-voltage electric transmission line across Northern Virginia provided updated engineering studies to the Virginia State Corporation Commission conclusively demonstrating the proposed power line is not needed for reliable electric service in the Commonwealth and surrounding states. Instead, it is proposed simply to profit the line's proponents, Dominion Resources and Allegheny Energy, on transmission and sales of cheap and dirty coal-fired generation in the Ohio River valley into the high-priced power markets of Baltimore-Washington to the east.

Virginia State Corporation Commission Hearing Examiner Alexander Skirpan ordered preparation of the engineering studies following a May 5, 2008 auction that regional power grid operator PJM Interconnection, LLC conducted to solicit power generation capacity for the future years 2011 and 2012. Power line opponents had argued during a February-March 2008 hearing on the alleged needed for the transmission line that the May 5 auction would provide market evidence that the so-called Loudoun line was a billion-dollar solution in search of a problem.

The transmission line opponents include the Boards of Supervisors of Fauquier and Prince Williams Counties, the PowerLine Alliance, Virginia's Commitment and the Piedmont Environmental Council. In a June 25 submission to the VSCC, they provided engineering studies showing that, using the May 5 auction results together with realistic assumptions about future market conditions, Northern Virginia and the greater Mid-Atlantic region will have ample power supplies to provide reliable service throughout the year. They also demonstrated that Dominion and Allegheny have engaged in baseless fear-mongering with unjustified and unrealistic threats of "rollng blackouts" in the Commonwealth.

To the contrary, explained Dr. Hyde Merrill, the opponents' electrical engineering consultant, the generation resources and demand response resources that the May 5 auction called forth show that the proposed west-to-east power line across scenic Northern Virginia is not needed to maintain service reliability. "Dominion's threats of massive overloads and rolling blackouts are founded on tenuous assumptions and strained interpretation of the facts," explained Dr. Merrill.

Based upon the testimony filed with the State Corporation Commission PEC and other parties are requesting that Commission reject the Dominion/Allegheny application because:

The Loudoun line does not advance the security of the National Capital Region (NCR). The line compromises security by making the NCR more dependent on remote coal fired generation to the west and long distance high-voltage transmission vulnerable to cascading outages and sabotage.

Loudoun line is unnecessary because simulated reliability violations are the product of highly unlikely multiple contingencies and baseline assumptions as to future loads, generation and demand side management that are unreasonable, unjustifiable, and, in the case of demand side management, contrary to Federal and Commonwealth policy.
Uncontested evidence demonstrates the Loudoun line does not solve even the unlikely contingencies that the line proponents simulated.

This matter will return to the State Corporation Commission on Monday, June 30 in Richmond for further hearings before Hearing Examiner Skirpan.

Robert Lazaro
Director of Communications
571.225.0198