The company that plans to build a controversial power line, known as the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, through Baltimore, Frederick and Carroll Counties has filed an additional lawsuit to get access to more people’s property.

PSEG filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court against nearly 200 landowners.

It says it needs access to the private land so it can survey the property.

In June, in a separate lawsuit, a judge granted PSEG the right to access more than 100 pieces of private property.

A group that is fighting the power line is appealing that decision and calls the new lawsuit a direct assault on property rights.

In a statement, PSEG said it had reached out to landowners to get voluntary access agreements.

“Because many landowners refused our efforts, and in order to obtain this survey data information, PSEG previously sought and has obtained a court order confirming that State law allows us to access a number of properties to complete the required surveys,” PSEG wrote. “That process continues with the additional properties included in today’s (Tuesday's) filing.”

PJM Interconnection, which runs the electricity grid that serves Maryland, selected PSEG for the job. It says the MPRP is necessary because of an increased demand for electricity coming at the same time old power plants are being retired.

But when the project was made public one year ago the opposition grew quickly and has been intense. Opponents of the project jammed public hearings in the three affected counties.

In a statement Joanne Frederick, the President of Stop MPRP, Inc. said, “Hundreds of landowners across Maryland are now being dragged into federal court simply for saying no to forced corporate access and defending their right to control what happens on their land.”

Maryland’s Public Service Commission will decide if the MPRP will be built.

This story may be updated.