The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is seeking public input on a recently proposed power line transmission system needed to provide power for the growing load and increased power reliability in the Redstone Arsenal and Huntsville areas of Madison County.

TVA officials held an open house to discuss the project on Thursday March 22nd. However those who were not able to attend can still share their thoughts about the project as the public comment period is slated to last until April 22nd.

TVA is currently set to invest about $8 million into the development, which would build a new power line connection from the existing Guntersville-Farley 161-kV Transmission Line to the southeast edge of the Redstone Arsenal property to serve their new substation.

The new line would be less than 5 miles and built using primarily single-pole, steel structures on a new 100-foot-wide right of way. This investment is just part of $2.8 billion total spending for transmission system improvements across TVA’s service area through 2027.

The main reason for the line’s construction, according to TVA Transmission Manager Shane Beasley, is that Redstone Arsenal is “expecting an increase of about 23 megawatts by 2025, up to 39 megawatts by 2026-27. This project is to support load growth and reliability. At Redstone, they’re building a fourth substation and they’ll be constructing part of the line themselves up to a demarcation point, and then we will make a connection to an existing line on our system and then build a line to that demarcation point.”

This would be TVA’s third power line to serve Redstone Arsenal. The three main considerations when proposing specific routes of the power line are environmental impact, engineering considerations, and impact to the public.

After the public comment period ends in April, TVA will move on to the route analysis phase and choose a preferred route. TVA said in a statement that a preferred route doesn’t mean it’s finalized as they continue the dialog with property owners.

More information, including maps and the project schedule, is available on TVA.com. Those interested can also learn more via TVA’s virtual open house through April 22, 2024. The public may submit comments by contacting TVA’s Gina Howard toll-free at 800-362-4355, by email at newtransline@tva.gov or by mail to: Gina Howard, Tennessee Valley Authority, 1101 Market Street, MR 4G, Chattanooga, TN, 37402-2801. The deadline for comments is April 22, 2024.