Citing an incomplete application process and changed economic circumstances, staff advisers have recommended that the state Public Service Commission dismiss the application for the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline.

The recommendation came in an Oct. 28 motion from PSC staff.

Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power applied to the PSC in May to build a 765-kilovolt transmission line from near Charleston northeast into Virginia, through West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle and finally to a proposed Kemptown substation in Maryland.

Since that time, however, as intervenors have prepared their cases, the Maryland Public Service Commission on Sept. 9 rejected the application PATH partners submitted there on a technicality: PATH Allegheny Transmission Co. is not a utility under Maryland law.

The PATH partners stated in their West Virginia application that the Maryland segment is necessary to the project.

However, they have not yet refiled in Maryland, leaving the West Virginia commission the “possibly futile task” of reviewing an application for an incomplete project, staff wrote.

In addition, staff noted in their Oct. 28 motion that changing economic circumstances may have reduced transmission congestion in this region.

Reports due from regional grid manager PJM Interconnection in January and February 2010 will contain more current electric load forecasts, they wrote, concluding that “it is unclear how the commission can make a determination on this application without the updated information.”

Staff and intervenors in the case, including the PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division, currently are required to file testimony by Nov. 17.

But the staff asked that, before all parties invest further resources in the lengthy and detailed PATH process, the commission dismiss the application until an application is filed in Maryland and new load forecasts are provided.

Alternatively, staff suggested that the applicants could request to have the timeline be “tolled,” or suspended temporarily.