Allegheny: Conservation alone won’t solve Urbana energy issues

For conservation to work, the company’s 3,800 customers in Urbana would have to shut off 8,200 air conditioners on the hottest days of the summer.

Allegheny said a new transmission line is the only way to serve the growing community. ‘‘If a conservation program were widely accepted, it could perhaps forestall the need for an additional transformer and feeder lines,” said Allegheny spokesman Todd Meyers.

However, conservation alone would not prevent the need for a new transmission line, which feeds into transformers. ‘‘You can’t run an ocean through a straw,” he said.

Urbana could face major outages by 2012 at its current rate of growth. ‘‘You have to remember that [Allegheny Power has] a legal and contractual obligation to provide safe and reliable power,” Meyers said.

However, there are a group of Urbana residents who are petitioning Allegheny Power to take a serious look at incorporating conservation methods into its plans.

Gary Sandman of Urbana is a member of the small group of stakeholders that Allegheny has convened to discuss upgrade options. He conceded that conservation alone would not solve the community’s energy needs, but said it could, in concert with alternative energy and new technology.

He said the petition would demonstrate to the company that residents are interested in conservation. ‘‘The bigger picture is [Urbana residents] will buy into conservation as a lifestyle,” he said. ‘‘We feel that we can cut [energy use] by 15-20 percent by turning off the TV and lights when we we’re not using them.”

He said if residents are committed to reducing the amount of electricity they use during peak hours — washing clothes after midnight instead of in the late afternoon — a real reduction in electrical load is possible.

He added that no matter what Allegheny Power did to increase power capacity in Urbana, improvements would require two years to build. He said with the summer months looming, conservation is Urbana’s best bet for halting possible outages.

Janine Borofka, another member of the small stakeholder group who is circulating the petition, wrote in an e-mail that there are 30 signatures on the petition, which began circulating in late April.

Sandman was quick to point out that the petition’s Web site, www.geocities.com⁄ConserveUrbanaMD, was only recently up and running.

Allegheny has been undergoing a planning process to determine what form upgrades to their power grid in Urbana would take. A group of stakeholders has been discussing alternatives, and the company held two open house meetings — one in March and one in April — at the Urbana Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company.

The Maryland Public Service Commission required Allegheny Power to redo its plan after an upgrade proposal was struck down in 2006. The commission ruled Allegheny had not done enough to seek public input.

The company has narrowed its options to three: build a 15-mile, 69-kilovolt line over the existing 34.5-kilovolt line serving Urbana; build a substation and 69-kilovolt and 34.5-kilovolt power lines; or build a two- to 10- mile-long, 230-kilovolt transmission line.