The Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) project is a plan that will be on hold for a long time due to the sour economy. That’s what MAPP project manager Bob Jubic told the Calvert County Planning Commission Wednesday, Feb. 22 during an update on the plan to ramp up power transmission capabilities in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The target completion date for the $1.2 billion, 152-mile project has been deferred to at least 2019.

The project, proposed last decade by Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI), begins at Possum Point, VA and ends in Delaware. Nine miles of 500 KV AC current lines and three miles of DC current lines will traverse Calvert County, eventually crossing under the Chesapeake Bay and Choptank River, reaching Dorchester County. Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) will own the Calvert County portion of the project.

Proponents have touted MAPP as a way to complement other electric transmission projects designed to improve electricity flow in the Mid-Atlantic region. Additionally, MAPP would recreate a bigger pipeline for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and supply power to all regional electric companies.

Jubic reported that PJM, the corporation that is undertaking the MAPP project, “has decided to hold the project in abeyance and reevaluate the need for the project,” which was originally expected to be completed earlier in the decade.

The Calvert portion of MAPP has undergone changes from what Pepco initially presented to the public in 2008. The change that has raised the most controversy is the location of a converter station (for when the AC line becomes a DC line). Structures housing those functions were originally planned for a location adjacent to Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, an area where the utility industry already has a presence.

Jubic indicated a plan to instead locate the structures to an environmentally sensitive area in Port Republic is being reassessed. “We are in a slow-down mode,” said Jubic, who explained project officials would need approximately a combined 40 acres for the converting and switching stations. The proposed buildings would both be 65 feet tall. Each building would have a footprint of 55,000 square feet. Project officials initially identified 30 potential sites for the converter station. After the Department of Energy conducted a public scoping meeting in Calvert last March, project officials added five additional sites for consideration.

“I don’t believe we have any buildings like what’s proposed in the county,” said Planning Commission Vice