PSEG selects possible routes for PA-NJ power line

NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuters) - Public Service Electric and Gas Co on Thursday selected three possible routes for its part of a new 130-mile power line from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, the New Jersey power company said in a release.

PSE&G, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc (PEG.N) (PSEG), will build the New Jersey part of the 500-kilovolt line, totaling about 45 to 50 miles.

A subsidiary of PPL Corp (PPL.N), of Allentown, Pennsylvania, will build the Pennsylvania side of the project.

The total cost of the line is estimated at about $1 billion with PSE&G's portion expected to cost about $650 million, a spokeswoman for PSE&G said.

PSE&G expects to select a route in July and start the permitting process. The company hopes to start construction in late 2009 with the line entering service for the summer of 2012.

The line will connect PSE&G's switching facility in Roseland, New Jersey with PPL's Susquehanna switching station near Berwick, Pennsylvania.

PJM, the Mid-Atlantic/Midwest power grid operator, approved of the proposed line in June 2007.

Without the new line, PJM has projected overloads on existing power lines starting as early as 2013 due in part to the forecast strong growth of demand in the area.

In PJM, the cost of big power lines, like this project, is shared by all customers in the PJM territory.

PJM operates a grid serving 51 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

In PSE&G's New Jersey service territory the three routes follow existing power lines or existing power line rights of way as much as possible.

PSEG, of Newark, New Jersey, owns and operates more than 16,500 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to 2.1 million customers and natural gas to 1.7 million customers in New Jersey and another 2.9 million customers around the world. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Christian Wiessner)