ATC sees need for $2.7 billion in transmissions upgrades

From a media release issued by American Transmission Company, LLC:

WAUKESHA, Wis. – American Transmission Co. identifies in its 2008 10-Year Transmission System Assessment report (www.atc10yearplan.com ) an estimated $2.7 billion in work needed over the next 10 years to ensure that the transmission grid can reliably meet the electricity needs of people and businesses in communities throughout most of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This is in addition to the $1.9 billion that ATC has invested in the transmission system over the past seven years.

“We’ve made major progress in improving electric system reliability in our first seven years as owner and operator of the transmission grid,” said Flora Flygt, director of ATC Transmission Planning.

“Some pockets of vulnerability remain, notably Dane and Walworth counties and the Green Bay, Appleton and Rhinelander areas. In these locales, low voltages and overloaded facilities must be addressed to maintain future system reliability. New and upgraded infrastructure will be needed.”

She added, “We also have to address the infrastructure needs of adding more wind power onto the grid. Building new interstate high-voltage transmission lines with the strategic location and capacity to deliver large volumes of renewable power from remote areas where it’s located into population centers will be a central challenge for years to come.”
Of the $2.7 billion investment that ATC identified in its 2008 Assessment, approximately $1.3 billion would be for new equipment including:
• adding 210 miles of new transmission lines,
• upgrading more than 540 miles of existing lines and
• installing more than 23 new transformers and 39 capacitor banks.

The remaining $1.4 billion would be for improvements including:
• maintenance on aging equipment
• connections to power plants
• infrastructure replacements and relocations
• distribution interconnections and
• other smaller network reliability improvements

 

Gov. Doyle announces regional initiative focused on wind energy support

From a media release issued by Governor Jim Doyle:

MADISON - Today Governor Jim Doyle and four other Midwest Governors announced the creation of a regional transmission planning effort that will promote regional electric transmission investment and cost sharing. The Upper Midwest Transmission Development Initiative will identify wind generation resources, transmission projects and infrastructure needed to support those resources in a cost-effective manner. Over the next 12 months, participants will determine a reasonable allocation for the costs of the region and will lead to the development of a concrete plan or tariff proposal for the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO).

Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota will join Wisconsin to coordinate efforts among state regulatory agencies, transmission companies, utilities, independent generation owners and other key stakeholders in the initiative. These states will work closely with MISO which is presently conducting a variety of transmission planning studies with results expected in 2009.

“Coordinated transmission planning centered on renewable energy is critical to providing a diverse supply of affordable, clean energy to our region,” Governor Jim Doyle said. “The coordinated transmission planning we are announcing today matches the recommendations made in a report by Wisconsin’s Global Warming Task Force.”

Governors from the other four participating states also expressed optimism for this joint effort . . .

 

Clean energy needs transmission

An editorial from the Wisconsin State Journal:

High-powered transmission lines don’t produce energy. They simply move it around to help keep people’s lights on.
Big transmission lines also can transfer clean energy just as easily as they can carry power from the dirtiest coal-fired generators.

Those are points many opponents of a 32-mile to 55-mile, 345-kilovolt line from west of Middleton to eastern Dane County seem to be missing. Higher energy use in Dane County doesn ‘t have to increase pollution or the carbon dioxide emissions blamed for contributing to climate change.

Just look at Texas.

The Lone Star state is already a national leader in generating power from wind. Just last week, Texas utility officials gave preliminary approval to spend $4.9 billion on big transmission lines to carry a huge amount of wind power from gusty West Texas to big cities such as Dallas. The lines would supply enough energy to serve an estimated 4 million homes.

That means the transmission lines are great news for the environment.

“We have all these wind plants up and operating. What we ‘re asking for is the superhighway to get the energy to the cities, ” said Tom Smith, director of the Texas chapter of the consumer group Public Citizen. “This will send signals to manufacturers all across the world Texas is ready to be a world-class player in renewable energy. “

Wisconsin is similarly striving to create more renewable fuels. Wisconsin is not an especially windy state. But leaders are exploring erecting wind turbines on blustery Lake Michigan.

Wisconsin also enjoys a huge supply of material such as wood chips, corn stalks, manure and even paper factory waste that can be turned into biofuel.

In addition, some environmentalists are open to erecting a high-powered transmission line across southwestern Wisconsin to connect to wind power in Iowa and Minnesota.

The ongoing controversy over whether to allow a big transmission line around Madison is more complicated. The debate is essentially over how much energy Dane County will need in the future.

Conservation is important and will help reduce demand. But conservation alone won ‘t offset our growing region ’s appetite for power. That ’s especially true if plug-in automobiles eventually replace our gas-guzzling cars.

What Wisconsin needs more of is clean energy. And as we develop more of that, we ‘ll need to move it around just as before.

 

Power line proposed from S. Dakota to Wisconsin

From a story by Bob Freund in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin:

Next month, about 17,000 rural land owners from Dakota County south to Rochester and east to Wisconsin will get a first glimpse of an enormous construction project that won’t start rising from the Minnesota landscape until at least 2010. . . .

The notice doesn’t mean a power line eventually will tower over their roofs. In fact, planners for the project, nicknamed CapX 2020, themselves don’t know exactly where the wires will cross the countryside.

But five Minnesota and Wisconsin utilities now are ready to seek an approval from state regulators to build the major line. After about three years of background work, “We’re just kind of starting to get rolling,” said Gerald Steffens, a manager for Rochester Public Utilities. . . .

The transmission lines are necessary because of increased electricity consumption in the past three decades, the utility officials told the government leaders.

 

ATC power line decision delayed

From a story by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:

American Transmission Co. says it will take a few more months to decide which two routes are the best option for a major new transmission line across Dane County. That’s because a study is under way to see if all or part of the line should go underground.

Plans to submit an application with state regulators for the proposed 345-kilovolt transmission line - set to run from west of Middleton to Rockdale, along the county’s eastern edge - are now expected to be filed in October, instead of June, ATC said Tuesday. . . .

Dave Shutes, of Citizens for Responsible Energy, a coalition opposing new transmission lines, said he welcomes the delay.

“Any delay makes it more likely there’ll be the realization (that) you can’t assume 3.1 percent year-after-year growth (in electricity demand) when we’re talking about reducing everybody’s use 2 percent a year to reduce global warming,” Shutes said. “This gives us more time to make sure everybody gets that disconnect.”

[Mark Williamson, ATC vice president of major projects] said he’s still convinced the high-voltage line is essential. “There’s no real hope that the economy or the county’s growth is going to slow down enough that you can avoid the need for the power line,” he said.

 

ATC backs study request on Tuesday’s ballot

With all the election hoopla, don’t forget the referendum on a study of transmission lines in Dane County. This comes from a story by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:

American Transmission Co. has taken out full-page ads in today’s Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times urging a “yes” vote on Tuesday’s Dane County referendum on power lines.

The referendum asks county voters whether a new, independent study should be conducted to see if the county truly needs more high-power transmission lines.

It’s not that the public utility company in charge of most of those towering lines in Wisconsin thinks the outcome will change. Mark Williamson, ATC’s vice president for major projects, called the referendum question “stupid” in a telephone interview Friday. He said it’s a moot issue because the state Public Service Commission will conduct a study before deciding whether the lines can be built.

 

Are Power Markets Benefiting Customers?

Customers First! Coalition 4th Annual Energy Conference
October 3, 2006

The Customers First! Coalition announces the line up for its 4th Annual Energy Conference and an opportunity to hear a distinguished group of state and national experts share their insights on topics that are challenging the way energy stakeholders think about keeping electricity affordable and reliable. Please join us on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center on the shore of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

An electric fight

A story by Ben Fischer in Madison’s Wisconsin State Journal reviews power line proposals in Dane County:

Robin Stearns, Frank Paynter, Steve Books and Doug Read hail from across Dane County communities and barely know each other.

But they’re on the same team today as they begin a pivotal year in their fight to keep proposed high-voltage power lines away from their neighborhoods.

In the coming weeks and months, they’ll find out if they’re successful. Soon, the American Transmission Co. - the owner of the region’s electricity grid - will fine-tune its list of proposed lines and begin to ask state regulators to approve some projects, which would pave the way for construction. . . .

Several environmental and industry watchdog groups that once battled ATC signed on to a study early in 2005 that confirmed the need to keep on building.

Michael Vickerman, executive director of the green-friendly group RENEW Wisconsin, said the participants in the study looked at every conceivable alternative to additional lines, including many of those now being proposed by the new activists, but they were rejected.

“We just didn’t see how any combination of alternatives could offset the need or even delay the need of the large lines,” Vickerman said.

 

Public can influence power routes

The Capital Times also carries a story by Ann Marie Ames on plans for the three power lines in Dane County:

It doesn’t take a degree in electrical engineering to understand that Dane County’s power needs are growing by leaps and bounds along with its population.

The process used to determine how power is routed into and around the county is complicated and controversial. Opportunities exist, though, for residents, with or without a degree, to be part of the process.

 

Power line not needed yet

The cooperation and postive outcome demonstrate the value of collaboration among various stakeholders, including RENEW Wisconsin, in Wisconsin’s energy future, as reported in a story by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The story reads in part:

A $124 million high-voltage power line that would cross 60 miles of Waukesha, Jefferson and Dane counties won’t be needed as soon as planners had envisioned.

That conclusion was reached recently by a collaborative that included customer and environmental groups, American Transmission Co. of Pewaukee and Milwaukee-based We Energies.

The 345,000-volt power line was thought to have been needed as soon as 2011, and was part of a $3.4 billion, 10-year transmission upgrade plan released in September by ATC, the company that owns and operates eastern Wisconsin’s major electric lines.