PSC to NYRI: Power line application "deficient"

NORWICH – New York Regional Interconnect Inc.’s $1.6 billion power line project has momentarily hit reverse, after state authorities ruled Wednesday that the Albany-based company’s Article VII application was incomplete.

In a letter dated July 26 that has been sent to NYRI representative Leonard Singer, New York State Public Service Commission Secretary Jaclyn A. Brilling states that 10 areas of the application, some containing multiple mistakes, were “deficient” based on public service law requirements.

“It’s a start,” said Chenango County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Hall. “It’s a small battle in a long war.”

Among its deficiencies, the PSC states that www.evesun.com/topics/news/NYRI/">NYRI’s application failed to show how their project benefits grid operation in New York, one of the company’s main selling points.

“The application states that the proposed project meets the recommendations for reliability benefits,” the letter states, “but does not describe what the reliability benefits are.”

Chenango County Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Decker said the ruling is in line with what local officials have proclaimed about the application since the issue arose. “It’s good news for this area, especially because the PSC has scrutinized the application as we asked them to,” Decker said. “All the work of the local and state government officials and citizens groups are starting to bear fruit.”

NYRI is proposing to build a 400,000 volt transmission line that would run 190 miles from Marcy down to Rock Tavern, running through Chenango and seven other counties. The project’s engineers have said the line would tap into an upstate electricity “surplus” in order to alleviate energy constraints in the lower Hudson Valley and New York City. The company acknowledged that the electricity could not be used by the power line’s hosts, and that energy rates upstate would increase roughly $166 million annually.