Georgia Transmission Corp. (GTC; Tucker, Georgia, U.S.) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI; Palo Alto, California, U.S.) have released a report that may influence how electric utilities site transmission lines. The report, “EPRI-GTC Overhead Electric Transmission Line Siting Methodology,” explains and documents a standardized process that utilities can follow in evaluating and selecting transmission line routes.

During the last two years, GTC and EPRI conducted an examination of GTC's existing siting process. More than 400 officials from government agencies, utilities, environmental groups and neighborhood organizations from Georgia and surrounding states participated in the research and provided critical reviews. In addition to stakeholder collaboration, the project team also incorporated geographic information system (GIS) technology and statistical evaluation methods.

The EPRI-GTC report presents a new siting approach by taking a sample transmission line project from initial planning through final route selection. The report proposes:

• Step-by-step procedures for documenting and consistently applying planning assumptions, evaluation criteria and decisions

• A new GIS-based software program that automatically defines large study areas, alternative corridors and a final route from multiple sets of data for roads, terrain, utility corridors, wetlands and other features

• Research techniques for reaching consensus on the relative importance of features, such as wetlands and housing density, and the ranking of environmental, manmade and engineering conditions.

As a result of this study, GTC has revamped its siting practice and the Kentucky Utilities Co. has adopted the new siting approach.

“Seldom does the electric industry see a study with such potential to change the way we site power lines,” says Nate Mullins, manager of transmission lines for Kentucky Utilities. “As we used this approach, we found that it ultimately produces more consistent decisions by forcing us to document and quantify the judgments we make. It helps us make decisions that are more objective, consistent and defensible.”

GTC's officials said the standardized process creates more consistent decisions, improves productivity and reduces data collection costs. Data collection and analysis cost savings at GTC range from US$10,000 to $100,000 per project, according to Jesse Glasgow of Photo Science Geospatial Solutions Inc. (Norcross, Georgia), a GTC contractor who contributed to the study and developed the software tool.