MORGANTOWN -- How will the state Public Service Commission fairly judge the need for a transmission line crossing 114 miles of West Virginians' properties to serve only Allegheny Energy customers in the East?

Nearly 400 residents returned to that question often at a standing-room-only information session with PSC Consumer Advocate Billy Jack Gregg in Morgantown on May 16. The session was organized by the Monongalia County Commission.

According to the utility's March 30 PSC application, the 500-kilovolt Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line would run south from southwestern Pennsylvania around Morgantown, then east across the Potomac Highlands to the Meadow Brook substation in Virginia.

In its eastern half, the proposed route's 200-foot right-of-way parallels an existing right-of-way and has drawn little opposition.

But in the west, it cuts a fresh path through Morgantown's rural west and south sides and across Preston County farms. Property owners have organized in opposition, and residents have applied to intervene in the PSC certification process.

On introducing Gregg, Sen. Michael Oliverio, D-Monongalia, explained that Gregg himself sought to protect his farm in the 1970s from an Appalachian Power line that threatened to cut across it.

Two issues dominated the discussion that followed: necessity and eminent domain.

Resident Don Corwin began the first question.

"People want to know ... why they should surrender or relinquish their property rights, their way of life, their safety, their health concerns, to supply power beyond the borders of the state?" he asked.

That's a question of need, said Gregg, whose agency is charged with protecting the interests of West Virginians. He added it's one of the issues the PSC will consider.

The problem for regulators, he said, "is that we have known for 20 years that the electric infrastructure in this part of the country is inadequate. It really wasn't built to do what it is doing today."

There's surplus demand east of the mountains, he said, and the generation surplus is west of them. There are only about four transmission paths across, and they're overloaded.

"While it may seem that we're being asked to sacrifice for the good of somebody else far away, the reality is it actually is going to benefit everybody in this region," he said -- reflecting the rolling brownouts predicted by 2011 if the grid is not reinforced.

"It would seem to me that the Marylands and the Virginias ought to be building their own power plants," Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, D-Monongalia, said to enthusiastic applause.

The residents in the east simply fight down any proposal to build them, Gregg responded.

Then easterners should manage their demand, suggested resident Jim Kotcon.

Analyses justifying the line assume 3 to 4 percent growth each year, he said, and he asked how to demonstrate that demand management would make the line unnecessary.

You could model scenarios in which demand is flat or drops over time, Gregg said, and show that the existing lines then are adequate. But the hard part, he said, is convincing the PSC that demand actually is going to drop.

Resident John Balasko asked what incentives Allegheny offers users to reduce demand.

"There's no direct program where they're giving out compact fluorescents, which is what some utilities have done," Gregg said.

There are no cash rebates for efficient electric appliances, as other utilities offer, he said, and no programs that increase the price of electricity during peak times.

What there is, he said, is a pilot program for net metering, where customers can install their own power generation devices and feed any surplus back into the grid to run their electric meters backwards.

If and when a route is approved, Gregg said, Allegheny will negotiate with property owners to purchase rights-of-way.

But even if every property owner refused to negotiate, it wouldn't stop the line, he said.

"They would simply post bond in every one of the circuit courts and go ahead and build the line," he said. "Then they would go through the process of determining what the value was of all the property that was condemned. It would probably stretch out years and years and years."

Residents whose views alone are affected will not be compensated, he said.

Also on the subject of eminent domain, Gregg explained the federal "backstop authority" that is in the works. If, as proposed in April by the federal Department of Energy, affected counties are designated part of a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, Allegheny will be able to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to step in if the state process drags out.

On May 7, Gregg filed a motion with the commission to require study of an alternate route.

West and south of the proposed route lies an existing 500-kV transmission corridor running from the Fort Martin power plant near Morgantown south to Pruntytown, then east to Mt. Storm.

Although paralleling that route would lengthen the line by about 9.5 miles, Gregg said, it likely would be cheaper overall because it would reduce opposition and the numbers of rights-of-way needed.

Some at the meeting supported the alternate route; others felt the line simply shouldn't be built.

Allegheny originally applied to the FERC for a ruling that would place the cost of the line on the eastern customers it will serve. But last month, Gregg explained, FERC ruled the cost of all new transmission built in the regional system will be pooled.

Residents at the meeting expressed unhappiness with Gov. Joe Manchin's support for the line. Monongalia County's state senators and delegates and the county commission have come out against the route.

Public meetings will be scheduled in the fall, Gregg said. The PSC has until May 2008 to issue a decision, and appeals may follow.

"So as you can see, we've got a fairly long and fairly dense process in front of us," he said.

Allegheny currently expects to place the line in service in 2011.