Report: Carolinas residents suspicious of Duke Energy’s plans for transmission …

Asheville residents welcomed Duke Energy’s plan to replace its coal-burning plant there with a 650-megawatt natural-gas plant. But farther south, residents are already objecting to related plans for a proposed transmission line.

Duke Energy Progress announced plans in May to build a $750 million combined-cycle natural gas plant to replace the 376-megawatt Asheville Steam Electric Plant. The plant is part of a $1.1 billion plan to upgrade power supplies in western North Carolina and South Carolina.

The plan includes a $320 million substation to be built in Campobello, S.C., and a 40- to 45-mile high-voltage transmission line running from the plant to the substation. That is likely to cost something in the neighborhood of $30 million.

June letters

In late June, Duke sent out 3,700 letters to residents in the Carolinas along the general route the line may take. Greenville, S.C., television station WHNS-TV, reports opposition may be forming.

“This little river valley has some of the most historically significant sights in upper Spartanburg County,” the station quotes resident Joanne Quantannens as saying. “We certainly feel that the study area is very narrowly drawn and it zeros in on some of the most environmentally sensitive land, some of the most historically significant land and some of the most economically productive land.”

“It could have a terrible economic impact on us,” another resident, Madelon Wallace, is quoted as saying. “Our major economic driver in this area is horses, tourism, wineries and agriculture … and we worked very hard over the years to build a strong economy in this area centered around those things.”

The objections could not be unexpected. Former Duke CEO Jim Rogers often observed it was easier to get support for building a new coal or nuclear plant than to install transmission lines.

Power island