Who should pay for PPL Electric Utilities’ proposed infrastructure project in southern Luzerne County?
That’s one of many questions residents posed this week to judges appointed by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to make a recommendation on the project.
"This issue before us is larger than just massive power lines. It's about whether a private citizen should bear the burden of massive transmission corridors built primarily to satisfy the demands of singular private corporations and Wall Street development speculators," Butler Twp. Resident and former state Rep. Todd Eachus testified.
Luzerne County is another Northeast Pennsylvania hotspot for data center development. In December, PPL sent a letter of notification to the PUC that the company plans new electrical infrastructure for an unnamed customer in Hazle Twp.
Two hearings were held Tuesday. Administrative Law Judges John M. Coogan and Erin L. Gannon presided over the proceedings at Penn State Hazleton. The hearings are part of PUC’s application process to eventually approve, modify or deny the project.
The PUC regulates utility companies.
“PPL Electric does not disclose customer-specific information. Our role is to evaluate service requests and determine the infrastructure needed to safely and reliably provide electric service,” spokesperson Dana Burns said in an email after the hearings. “The focus of this filing is whether the proposed facilities are needed to support safe, reliable operation of the electric system and appropriately serve the requested load.”
However, the location of the customer-owned substation included in the PPL project and the proposed NorthPoint Development’s Project Hazlenut data center campus in Hazle Twp. match up.
“While the company anticipates that this project will eventually facilitate service to multiple customers, due to multiple customer requests, the project is immediately needed to serve a new prospective customer located in Hazle Township,” PPL’s letter of notification stated.
Two phases
PPL’s Sugarloaf Transmission Project will be completed in two phases. The hearings on Tuesday were for the first phase only. But many residents who testified said that the project should be looked at in its entirety.
“I would say these are not phase one and phase two, this is one project, because without one you can't have the other,” Sugarloaf Twp. resident Marguerite Woelfel told the judges.
Phase I includes 1.1 miles of new double circuit 230 kilovolt (kV) lines to connect the existing Susquehanna Hardwood Station to a new Tomhicken switchyard. The project also includes 0.1 miles of four new high voltage lines to a customer-owned substation.
Phase II includes a switchyard and about 11 more miles of high voltage lines which will run through residents’ properties. That phase also includes 30 eminent domain applications.
Allan Dick is a Sugarloaf Twp. resident and one of the first people to testify Tuesday. He said there is a distinction between requested demand, projected demand and demonstrated demand.
"I respectfully ask the commission to consider how much of this application depends on each before approving infrastructure of this magnitude,” he said. “I further ask the commission to ensure these projections are supported by verified evidence and not simply optimistic assumptions.”
Dick asked what protections exist if the project is delayed, scaled back or is never built.
NorthPoint’s Project Hazlenut is delayed.
In November, Hazle Twp. Supervisors denied the developers land development plan for the 15-data center campus. The Kansas City-based developer took the issue to court. Luzerne County Judge Lesa Gelb ruled that the issue must go back to the township’s zoning officer.
NorthPoint owns the land for Project Hazlenut under NP Hazleton Holdings I LLC. A map on page 69 of PPL’s letter of notification identifies the LLC’s property near the proposed customer substation.
Questions on the project's necessity
Everyone who testified was a PPL Customer.
Woelfel said she pays five PPL bills. One is for an empty cabin and that bill has gone up from $15 to $30 in the last 10 years, she said.
"I just, I look at my electric bills and what they've done, and … this stuff hasn't even happened yet, it's not even hit the books, you're planning it. Our rate increases have come through, but they're going to go nowhere but up,” she said.
Brenda Rizzo owns 100 acres of farmland in Sugarloaf Twp. She said some of their property was taken for Interstate 80.
"We understand you have to have the interstate. We all use it, so again, if an eminent domain came in and took part of our property, it's something that was necessary," she said.
Rizzo said PPL now wants some of her land for Phase II of the project. She asked that the commission make sure that the whole community is helped by the transmission project.
"Because that's what eminent domain is. It's giving up your property, because it helps all of us, not just one," she said.
What's next?
Evidentiary hearings for Phase I are scheduled for Sept. 17 and 18 in the Keystone Building in Harrisburg. During the hearings, written evidence will be moved into the record and witnesses will be cross-examined.
The last legal briefs are due on Oct. 23.
After that the judges will issue a recommended decision. The commission will then decide if the recommendation should be adopted, rejected or modified, Coogan said.
As for Phase II, a pre-hearing conference by phone is scheduled for Friday, July 10.
