Final Route Chosen For MPRP

It will pass through the southeast & southern areas of Frederick County.Photo from PSEGFrederick, Md (KM) The final route for the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project has been chosen. The Public Service Enterprise Group announced that in Frederick County, the 70-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line will cross near New Market, Ijamsville, Buckeystown and Adamstown, ending at the Doubs substation. The line will also travel through northern Baltimore County and the middle Carroll County. :.PSEG says it ill send out 800 letters to affected property owners. It will also host a public information session on the route on November 14th at the New Market District Volunteer Fire Company from 6:00 PM until 8:30 PM   Similar public information sessions will be  held in Baltimore and Carroll Counties. .”Over the last four months, PSEG’s team has analyzed over 5,300 public comments and arrived at a transmission solution,” says Jason Kalwa, a project director at PSEG, in a statement. “The proposed solution is  community informed, reliable and mitigates impact to individuals, communities and wildlife as much as possible while delivering a cost-effective solution for Maryland and PJM electric customers. We are committed to transparency and community engagement as a part of this process and encourage all interested residents to attend our upcoming public information session so that we can hear their comments and concerns.”The company says PJM, which operates the regional electric grid in all or part of 13 states including Maryland, has said there is a need to increase the available amount of electricity in Maryland It selected PSEG’s plan for MPRP to address that issue.Opponents say the electricity from this transmission line will be mostly used by data centers in Virginia.By Kevin McManus