Georgia Transmission Corporation, a not-for-profit, transmission-only electric cooperative owned by 38 of Georgia’s Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs), has notified Monroe County officials that it plans to install a 7.8-mile-long, 500 kV electric transmission line to address the demand for increased electric capacity and to enhance reliability in the Smarr-Rum Creek areas.
Oglethorpe Power’s future two-unit, combined-cycle, natural gas-fired power plant will be serviced through the proposed new transmission line. Information about the future power plant is available at New Generation Project in Monroe County: Smarr CC – Oglethorpe Power.
What Georgia Transmission is calling the “Big Smarr — Rum Creek 500 kV Transmission Line” will run from a proposed Big Smarr substation, located at Oglethorpe Power’s future plant just south of Georgia Transmission’s Electric Cooperative Training Center on Rumble Road, to a proposed Rum Creek substation off Ebenezer Road on Plant Scherer property.
Representatives of Georgia Transmission have been in contact with the approximately 14 property owners that are directly affected by the construction of the proposed transmission line to obtain survey permission.
According to Georgia Transmission, the transmission line will require cross-country easements of 150 feet. Property owners will receive fair market value compensation negotiable between the landowner and Georgia Transmission for easements granted.
To better inform the public about the new transmission line, Georgia Transmission will hold a drop-in public information open house about the project from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 at its Electric Cooperative Training Center at 955 Rumble Road, Forsyth, GA 31029. Doors will open promptly at 6 p.m.
Affected property owners, as well as property owners adjacent to or near the proposed transmission line, will receive certified letters about the public information open house.
Clearing for the new line is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027 with construction of the new line scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2027. The line is scheduled to be ready for service by December 2028.
For more information about the proposed new transmission line, please call Anne Lerner, Public Affairs Director for Georgia Transmission, at 770-270-7265.
