What this Project Means for You

Our customers’ increasing demand for electricity means we need to improve our transmission system to ensure continued reliability.

Southern Maryland has been among the fastest growing areas in Maryland and the United States — growth places greater strain on infrastructure.

Our customer base in Calvert County has tripled over the past 30 years, from 9,130 to more than 30,000. The graph below shows the increase in SMECO's entire customer base.

SMECO Projected Member Growth

Annual energy use has reached 683,000 megawatt (MW) hours – five times greater than it was 30 years ago.
It’s predicted that over the next 10 years, energy use in Calvert County will reach over one million MW hours.
From 1986 to 2006, the number of customers we serve has more than doubled, but more importantly, our customers’ energy demand has almost tripled.
Demand in Calvert County has increased: summer demand grew from 54 megawatts (MW) in 1986 to 160 MW in 2006, and winter demand grew from 61 MW to 203 MW. The graphs below show the increase in demand for all SMECO customer-members.

Continued Reliability

SMECO’s transmission line upgrade will ensure reliable power for SMECO’s customer-members. This improvement project will increase the capacity of our existing 69-kilovolt (kV) transmission line to 230 kV.

Upgrading this line is the common solution for multiple reliability issues, and this upgrade will create a continuous “loop” of electricity service around SMECO’s service territory, which will:

Create more flexibility to move power around.
Bring more power into Calvert County to meet today’s demand as well as future needs.
Enable us to more quickly contain any outage and restore power to you.
Allow us to feed electricity in either direction, so an outage in one spot doesn’t necessarily affect service to people further down the line.
Enhance emergency preparedness for first responders, hospitals, and military installations in our area.
Allow us to maintain our high standard of service.

Largely the Same Route

The new line will largely follow the same route as our existing line. Although we will consider alternate routes, new rights-of-way are not necessary, with the exception of areas like the Patuxent River crossing. Using existing rights-of-way greatly minimizes environmental, residential, and other public impacts.

Most county residents won’t even notice the new structures being installed because we plan to use our existing right-of-way. We will also work with adjacent property owners when locating the new structures.

To view the proposed route map, click here.

We will provide complete information about each step of this project — and work with you — before plans are finalized. We will seek community input on many important topics such as the final proposed route, the types of pole used, and how we cross the lower Patuxent River.

To let us know what you think, click here.

Environmental Protection

We’re proud of our environmental track record. We enjoy a solid working relationship with many local and state environmental groups. As we’ve done in the past, we’ll work with these groups and others to balance the need for reliable power with environmental protection.

This project will maintain maximum wooded areas along the route and will not impact any endangered species.
Because our rights-of-way are well-maintained, we expect tree trimming and brush clearing to be minimal and confined only to our existing rights-of-way.
We have retained industry-leading environmental and engineering consultants for this project to cover every base and incorporate best practices.
We will also work closely with state regulatory agencies to ensure this project will be built to meet or exceed state and local codes and standards.

New Power Poles

For the most part, new poles will replace existing poles.

The new power poles will be engineered to the highest standards, balance functionality and visual aesthetics and blend with the wooded sections of the route.
The design and efficiency of the new poles will reduce vulnerability to damage, reduce maintenance costs, and require fewer poles along the line.
In fact, our engineers estimate this project will reduce the required number of poles by about 25% over the existing line.

To see what the new poles will look like, click here.

Minimal Effect on Customer Rates

This project will have a minimal effect on your current rates.

The cost of the upgraded power line will be rolled into our annual construction budget and will be financed over many years.
This project will add $20 million per year for five years to our $50 million annual construction budget.