| November 19, 2009 |
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Maintaining the world-class reliability of our electric infrastructure in New Jersey requires more than the hard work of those who operate and maintain the wires and poles in our neighborhoods. It takes the efforts of technicians, engineers and regional system planners who operate and maintain our high-voltage transmission lines.
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One of their most important jobs is to determine the need for new lines in the coming years and to do so in time to ensure power is available when needed. New Jersey imports about 25 percent of the energy we use, so we are dependent on interstate high-voltage lines to keep the lights on.
PSE&G is working with the Board of Public Utilities and others to gain the necessary approvals to construct the Susquehanna-Roseland line.
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This line needs to be completed by 2012 to maintain the reliability our customers expect and need, averting blackouts and brownouts.
We have worked to minimize the impact of the line on local residents and the environment by choosing a path on which we already operate a high voltage transmission line, and using management practices that will minimize construction impacts.
While we strive to keep our commitment to New Jersey to maintain a highly reliable grid, we are also working with Congressional leaders in Washington, DC to develop a transmission policy that avoids special subsidies for an unnecessary and very costly transmission superhighway from Midwestern wind farms more than 1,200 miles away. These lines are not needed to keep the lights on, but are an attempt to subsidize Midwestern wind development and to transport that wind power out of the Midwest. We are supporting a transmission policy that gives fair treatment to renewable power here in New Jersey, such as off-shore wind and solar energy, which requires very little new transmission since it is located right off our own coastline and on our rooftops.
In a state as densely populated as New Jersey, constructing a new transmission line is an enormous challenge. We do so to meet the electric reliability needs upon which the New Jersey economy and welfare are so dependent. Our commitment is to build when it is absolutely needed and to avoid unnecessary new lines when we have viable alternatives right here in our own backyard.
What’s your view? Please let us know at Opinion@PSEG.com.
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