PATH is a joint venture between Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power (AEP) to build a new, high voltage, interstate transmission line that will go through West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland.

PATH will consist of a single 765-kV line that will begin at AEP’s John Amos Substation in Putnam County, West Virginia, pass through the proposed Welton Spring Substation in Hardy County, West Virginia, and end at the proposed Kemptown Substation in Frederick County, Maryland.

The transmission line will be approximately 275 total line miles, with approximately 225 line miles in West Virginia, approximately 30 line miles in Virginia and approximately 20 line miles in Maryland.

The need for the PATH project has been established by conclusions noted in the past four Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP) reports, citing reliability violations in the PJM region, including the Mid-Atlantic area. The latest PJM analyses, conducted as part of the independent grid operator’s 2010 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP), are consistent with previous studies since 2007 identifying PATH as the preferred solution for resolving issues on the region’s transmission grid. Based on the 2010 RTEP findings, PJM is directing that PATH be placed into service by June 1, 2015, at the latest.