BRANCHLAND, W.Va. — Appalachian Power Company hopes to use information from two open houses this week to determine a final route for a new transmission line that it believes will improve service for customers in parts of Lincoln and Logan counties.
Appalachian Power and its affiliate, West Virginia Transmission Company, are mapping out a 24-mile course for a 138-kilovolt transmission line, which will improve reliability, according to Appalachian Power Communications Director Jeri Matheney.
“We’ve had some extended power outages over the last few years in the (Hopkins-Logan County) area and building a new transmission line will strengthen that local grid and reduce the number of outages in the area and it will also help us decrease restoration time,” Matheney said.
The $90 million project includes building two new substations and retiring 17 miles of older transmission line while the rest of the line will be reinforced. The new line will travel a different route than the current transmission line. The company hopes to receive important information from property owners at open houses scheduled for Wednesday evening at Lincoln County High School in Hamlin and Thursday evening at Chapmanville Regional High School in Chapmanville, Matheney said.
“They can give us any information that we might not otherwise know about like where there might be a family cemetery on anything like that. That’s really good information as we try to decide on a final route,” Matheney said.
The company’s preliminary study segments take the line from Sheridan to Chapmanville via Branchland, Midkiff, Ranger, Leet and Big Creek. Once the new line is in Appalachian Power will retire 17 miles of line from Sheridan to Huntington.
If all goes as planned, there should be more options for power for Appalachian Power customers in that part of southern West Virginia, Matheney said.
“if you only have one route for power that can mean that if there is a power outage it takes longer to restore it because you can’t switch the customers to a different path to receive their power,” Matheney said. “If there’s only one path for the electricity to run that’s just more vulnerable.”
The open houses are scheduled from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
According to the company, once completed, the new transmission line will bring Lincoln and Logan counties an estimated combined annual tax revenue of $1.2 million.
Project updates can be found at www.appalachianpower.com/lincolnlogan