Piedmont power line company heads to court, as landowners refuse access for property surveys
Opponents of the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, a proposed power transmission line through Central Maryland, protested last summer in Frederick, outside an unrelated conference on the data center industry. (File photo by Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters)
More than 100 property owners in Central Maryland have refused to let power company PSEG onto their land to survey for the proposed Piedmont power line project, the company said in a legal filing Tuesday.
In a 53-page filing with the U.S. District Court for Maryland — at least 14 pages of which is a listing of defendants — the New Jersey-based company is seeking an order that would let it access the properties with a minimum of 24 hours notice, and prohibit the property owners from interfering.
In its filing, the company said that despite 'numerous real and bona fide efforts' to obtain consent from landowners, each has refused.
'Despite our efforts to engage with property owners and even offer reasonable compensation, we have been unable to gain voluntary access from a sufficient number of property owners that will allow us to conduct these environmental surveys,' PSEG said in an April 9 public statement, which also warned that lawsuits could be coming.
The company said it had offered financial compensation to landowners who allowed temporary access for the 'noninvasive environmental surveys.' But it said in the filing that an 'organized and funded opposition, led by STOP MPRP, Inc.' has 'urged property owners to refuse the Company access.'
The group was convened last year, after community members first learned of the power line project, known as the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project — and grew concerned that the 67-mile power transmission line would destroy tracts of rural land in Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties.
The all-volunteer organization is funded entirely by donations and membership payments, said Joanne Frederick, a co-founder and president of the board of directors.
As demand for AI rises, so do power-thirsty data centers
'People have the right to say no when someone wants to come on their land,' Frederick said. 'And as an organization, we made people aware of their rights to say no.'
Frederick called Tuesday's court filing from PSEG 'another attack' on local landowners, who were startled to learn of PSEG's plans for the line, and the possibility that it could use eminent domain to acquire land.
'PSEG wants to come onto peoples' properties to do surveys, so they can use that information to strengthen their application to then later come and take our land,' Frederick said. 'Do we, as landowners, have to make it easier for someone to take our land?'
STOP MPRP said Wednesday evening that it had retained legal counsel 'to advise our organization on the best course of action to support our members and affected landowners,' and it urged Gov. Wes Moore (D) to issue a public statement in support of the landowners.
Frederick said distrust for PSEG abounds in the community, and some residents are concerned that the surveys could do damage to their properties — or that the data gathered could be distorted to suit PSEG's needs.
PSEG is completing the surveying — including forest, wetland and sensitive species assessments — as part of its application before the Maryland Public Service Commission for the power line, filed in December. The commission, which regulates utilities in the state, must issue a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity before the project can go forward.
Only after PSC approval could the company seek to use eminent domain. In a prior public statement, the company called it an 'option of last resort,' adding that it would only be used 'to maintain reliable electric infrastructure for all Marylanders.'
The transmission line was commissioned by PJM Interconnection, the electric grid operator serving Maryland and 12 other states, as well as Washington, DC. It would connect a Baltimore Gas & Electric right-of-way in northern Baltimore County to the Doubs Substation in Frederick County.
PJM has said that it commissioned the Piedmont line, along with other transmission projects, to account for increased energy demand, including from power-hungry data centers like the ones in Northern Virginia, and the loss of energy supply thanks to retiring fossil fuel generators.
In its legal filing, PSEG said it is obligated, under an agreement with PJM, to bring the power line into service by June 2027, and to do so, it must begin construction by January 2026.
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If the court does not grant access for the surveying, PSEG would be forced to redraw the power line route, and resubmit its application with the Maryland PSC, the company said. But a different route may not change the outcome, because of the significant community pushback, PSEG said.
'Based on public comments and correspondence the Company has received to date, it is likely that the Company would encounter additional opposition with any alternative proposed line,' reads the lawsuit. 'This, in turn, would likely put the Company in exactly the same position in which it finds itself now: seeking Court intervention.'
So far, PSEG has paid nearly $1.6 million to siting and environmental consultants, and $1.3 million to a real estate firm helping contact relevant property owners, according to the company's lawsuit. Resubmitting an application would likely require the company to incur those fees all over again, and jeopardize the project's timeline, the suit stated.
Frederick said that PSEG is essentially 'asking landowners to either give up and just allow this to happen, or hire what could be very costly attorneys to protect their own land rights,' adding that the impacted property owners include elderly individuals, and some who have never been involved in legal proceedings before.
'We're standing together. People are resolute. I do not believe that this latest foray will suddenly cause people to just give up,' Frederick said.
Frederick, who lives on a farm property impacted by the route, said she is one of the landowners who was sued earlier this week. If the power line is constructed, she said that she stands to lose about 5 acres of forest on her property, which contains conservation and forest buffer easements.
She purchased the property in 2020. It was a one-time dairy farm, once owned by her great-grandparents, that was sold out of the family in 2004 and fell into disrepair. For the past five years, Frederick said she has been working to restore the farm and her family's legacy.
But PSEG's project threatens to upend that, she said. That's why she has thrown herself into the opposition effort, she said.
'It has been all-consuming,' Frederick said.
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