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On Aug. 7, Allegheny Transmission Company, which plans to build a 275-mile-long power line to bolster the regions electrical supply, flew two weather balloons over the site of a proposed substation near Kemptown.

The company set up the two balloons — one was 5 feet in diameter and looked like a big, blue beach ball and the other looked like a 10-foot by four-foot blimp — and took pictures from 55 locations, according to Todd Meyers, a spokesman for Allegheny. He said the photos will be incorporated into an animated simulation which will be presented in the open houses for the substation, but he was not sure when these would be as of Wednesday. Meyers said the photos were taken early in the morning, before thermal updrafts would rise and disturb them. Because they were stationary, the company was able to get better pictures, he said.

Meyers said the simulation will show how the substation, which will be larger than most, will be able to be hidden from view with plantings and earthworks. The company plans to build the substation near 1,300 homes on Bartholows Road, and residents object to it partially because they feel it will be an eyesore.

This substation is part of the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline project, or PATH, which American Electric Power and Allegheny Power are planning to build through West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland. The companies say if PATH is not built by 2014, the electric grid will not handle demand.