Direct Testimony of Thomas M. Hildebrand - Consumer Advocate ...

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Q. WITH RESPECT TO THE NEED FOR THIS NEW TRAIL LINE, MUCH HAS
BEEN MADE OF THE GROWING ELECTRICAL DEMAND IN THE STATE OF
VIRGINIA. WHAT IS YOUR ASSESSMENT IN THIS AREA?
A.
1) Northern Virginia has a very large population base. Many may not realize Fairfax
County, VA is not much different in population that the entire State of West Virginia.
There are many such large population centers in Virginia, Maryland, of Washington,
D.C. As such, this large concentration represents a huge and untapped energy
conservation and efficiency resource. As an example of this huge potential to conserve
energy, I offer Attachment 11,2006 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, published June
2007 by the American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy.’ This report shows
Virginia ranked 3gfh among states for Energy Efficiency and Virginia’s Electric Utility
companies tied for last among all 50 States and receiving a score of 0 out of a possible 15
points for energy efficiency spending. It should also be noted that West Virginia
performed slightly better (ranked 35fh) than Virginia and West Virginia’s utility
companies received one-half of one point. The key is that even modest success
improving such measures would eliminate the need for TrAIL. I’d like to remind the
Commission that PJM boasts more than 51 million customers. If each of them conserved
an amount equal to a single light bulb, 51 OOMW would be saved. It makes you wonder if
a better alternative to TrAIL might be for the power companies to simply send each
household a coupon in their electric bill for two free compact fluorescent light bulbs from
Home Depot.
2) Attachment 12 is a page out of the US. Department of Energy’s 2006 Transmission
Congestion Study.” It states, there are three primary ways to deal with long-term
congestion: 1) Build new generation; 2) Build new or upgrade transmission capacity; 3)
Reduce electricity demand through energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed
generation. In TrAILCo’ s application, TrAILCo has chosen to not provide alternatives
using options 1 and 3 and focus entirely on the more controversial additional TrAILCo
line, option 2. Options 1 and 3 would clearly contribute to meeting any reliability and
For brevity, I‘ve only included the referenced pages. The remainder is available upon request.
lo For brevity, I’ve only included the referenced pages. The remainder is available upon request.
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