A Georgia Transmission Corporation project that’s still in the planning stages will include installation of approximately 10 miles of 46-kV sub-transmission line and poles, as well as a new substation.
The purpose of the Whitepath 46-kV project is to improve power reliability in the area, said Terry Cole, Georgia Transmission Public Affairs Director.
“It starts at what we call the Ellijay Number 2 substation on Old Highway 5 near First United Methodist Church and heads out and ultimately up Boardtown Road to a site for a new substation,” added Cole. “Amicalola Electric is the EMC that serves that community and they are constantly improving their distribution system, but there’s only so much you can do to a distribution system before you need a transmission solution. This is a part of a bigger project Amicalola is doing to increase reliability there and the transmission solution is kind of the backbone of that.”
Cole described how the different types of power sources used to provide electricity to EMC customers function with one another.
“When you think about power, there are three components. There’s generation, which is a nuclear or hydroelectric power plant. It travels from there on high voltage transmission lines, which are the tall poles and big lines that are the main part of any electric system. From there, it travels to substations where the power gets stepped down to a level that it can be carried out on distribution lines to homes or businesses,” she said. “A transmission line is kind of the backbone or superhighway to get high-voltage power to the substation, then the substation does the work of reaching out to individual customers.”
The project will have a broad reach in terms of improving power reliability, although a definite scope of that reach is not available this early, Cole noted.
“Transmission lines have to go where there’s a substation or where we have to fill the gaps, but as far as who is served, that’s a much broader area than where you’ll actually see that line,” she said.
The first public meetings were held this week to hear comments and answer questions from the public about the project and construction will probably not begin until sometime in 2022.
“We are still very early in this. A preliminary route for the sub-transmission line has been selected and we’re in the early stages of gathering input from the community,” Cole confirmed. “Once a route is determined, survey work will get underway first and you won’t see any clearing work till probably the third quarter of 2021, then construction in the first quarter of 2022. The line is scheduled for service around the end of 2022.”
Obtaining easements from property owners along the route has also yet to take place.
“We’ll be talking to property owners about purchasing property for the easements. Our land agents have made outreach to (affected) property owners and there has been dialogue going for a couple of months now. We first do the survey permission to look at property to determine where an (easement) would have to be. After there’s a final route, you go out and start having conversations with property owners about specifics where it comes to easements,” Cole said.
The total dollar amount of the Whitepath project is approximately $18 million.
“Georgia Transmission is a not-for-profit owned by the EMCs in the state and we work at the direction of the EMCs,” Cole explained. “Our funding comes from the EMCs and we also get federal loans. We do the work. We will have contractors, but this is our project from start to finish.”
Georgia Transmission’s 230-kV Ellijay-Roundtop Road project, which was under construction in 2016 and 2017, consisted of 17 miles of high-voltage transmission line and a new substation.
According to the organization, the purpose of that project was to improve power reliability by establishing a backfeed for the system and providing an added power source to reduce the likelihood of sustained power outages during storms.
When the Ellijay-Roundtop project began, the area was served by only one 230-kV transmission line and two 46-kV transmission lines all located in the same corridor. The Whitepath project will add another 46-kV line to the system and will serve the same needs, improving power reliability and reducing outages, Cole noted.
“Part of it is there are reliability issues and concerns in that specific corridor. They are having outages,” she added. “This project is especially about keeping the lights on for homes and businesses across Ellijay and Gilmer County and it’s part of a broader effort to increase electric reliability in the area. It will benefit everybody in that area because it is a reliability solution.”