NORTHWEST ARKANSAS (KFSM) – Southwestern Electric Power Company on Tuesday withdrew its pending application to construct a $116 million electric transmission project through Northwest Arkansas.
The announcement by SWEPCO comes after several months of public meetings and talks over how best to carry out the project, which would have included a 60-mile-long transmission line from western Benton County to Carroll County, initially set to begin in June 2016.
The overall project called for SWEPCO to build several transmission projects across the region over an eight-year period. The company filed an application for the project with the Arkansas Public Service Commission in April 2013. An administrative law judge for the commission later found the project followed environmental compatibility guidelines. That decision was overturned in March by the commission, which found additional evidence was needed to justify the need of the transmission project.
A subsequent study this year found the proposed line across Benton County was “not required to maintain reliability in the northern Arkansas and southern Missouri,” according to a statement released Tuesday by SWEPCO.
