From Staff Reports

SKYLAND — Duke Energy officials announced Nov. 4 that the utility is dropping plans to build a 45-mile high-voltage transmission line that would have run from its Lake Julian plant in Skyland, near Asheville, to a substation in Campobello, S.C., just north of Spartanburg.

Duke Energy officials said the change-of-plans to reconfigure the plant — first announced in May — will mean that the line and the substation are no longer needed.

As a result, Duke will build two smaller natural gas plants to replace its one coal plant that the utility plans to shut down by 2020. A third gas-fired plant might be needed by 2023 or so, if conservation efforts fail to lower electricity demand sufficiently, the officials said. 

Previously, Duke had planned to build one gas-fired generator to replace its coal-burning turbines. Under the new plan, the two gas plants will provide a backup source of power in case one goes down.

A number of residents, as well as environmental groups, had opposed the transmission line, based on environmental and aesthetic concerns.

Duke had planned to use the transmission line to pull backup power from elsewhere, if problems arose at the Lake Julian generating plant, company officials said.

The change was hailed by environmental leaders — and likely was a relief to thousands of people in Buncombe, Henderson and Polk counties in North Carolina and in Upstate South Carolina who worried the power lines would mar mountain scenery and lower property values.

Strong opposition was expressed toward a perplexing array of possible routes. To that end, Lloyd Yates, Duke’s president for the Carolina region, said the company had been swayed by the more than 9,000 comments it had received since it proposed building the line earlier this year.

“Let me thank everyone who’s been involved in this process for their input and most of all for their patience,” Yates said at a Nov. 4 news conference at the plant on Lake Julian. “The process worked.”

Duke was “surprised by the volume and intensity” of opposition to the transmission line plans announced earlier this year, Robert Sipes, general manager for the company’s western region, said.

A single, larger gas unit would have provided power needs in Duke’s Asheville-based western region for 20 to 30 years into the future, he said.

“The original solution that we provided was what we believed to be the best technical solution,” Sipes said. But as opposition grew, “it became clear that... the best technical solution was not the best practical solution, all things considered.”

Duke also said it would install a less-efficient gas-fired generator as soon as 2023, at the Skyland plant on Long Shoals Road. However, company officials said they hope to delay the need for the third generator by getting people in the Asheville-based western region to embrace steps to make their homes and businesses more energy-efficient and to draw less electricity from the grid during peak demand.

The third unit would operate only when power demand peaks on especially cold or hot days, possibly 10 percent or less of the time, Glen Snider, the company’s director of integrated resource planning for the Carolinas, said.

Following a Nov. 17 vote by Asheville City Council, Duke Energy will not pursue construction of three proposed substations until 2017 — and will strive to relocate one much-criticized site near a school, according to Mayor Esther Manheimer.

Council’s vote, which was unanimous, was to postpone new city restrictions, including requirements for buffering, screening and setbacks on electrical or other substations. Council will consider adoption of the new rules on Aug. 23.

The city’s vote for the delay constituted its part of a deal for Duke to delay and change substation construction in places such as a site near the new Dickson Elementary School, Manheimer noted. (The Dickson substation site had triggered much opposition from parents of students and nearby residents over safety concerns.)

Duke had announced plans to build a substation near the school on Hill Street, as well as one on Hilliard Avenue, and one on Biltmore Avenue at the old Matthews Ford property. However, the utility now has stated in writing that it would delay seeking permits until 2017, and would look to relocate the Hill Street site if the city puts off enacting new restrictions, the mayor said.

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