Monticello Live

Wednesday evening Entergy Arkansas held a public open house at UAM to discuss the installation and construction of a new 230 kilovolt electrical transmission line being planned for Drew and Desha counties. In addition to providing information and answering questions, attendees were invited to complete questionnaires and express their comments and concerns regarding this installation.

Transmission lines are the power lines used to deliver electricity from the generating plants to substations, which then distribute the electricity to individual customers.

The larger transmission line is being planned by Entergy because the current transmission infrastructure is not adequate to accommodate the needed voltage levels and existing energy demands. Voltage overloads can cause unnecessary electrical outages in the area. As the region continues to experience economic growth and development, energy needs will increase. The larger transmission line will be necessary to continue to adequately provide electric power to the communities and to industry. The increased line capacity will also be a positive factor in drawing new industry to the area.

The currently proposed transmission line will run from the existing Monticello East Substation to the Reed switching station, located in Desha County.

In considering potential routes for the transmission line, Entergy is taking into consideration a number of factors, including proximity to existing transmission lines and other related utilities and facilities, ease of access, length of the line, proximity to customers, and the need to avoid wetlands, historic sites, and homes. One option is to route the line beside the MEDC Industrial Park. This would be a very important factor for the Industrial Park from an industrial recruiting standpoint.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2013 at 8:00 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.