Michigan utility envisions massive line to carry wind generated power

A Michigan utility company wants to build what it’s calling the Green Power Express, a super-sized transmission line that would link wind-power farms around the Midwest and carry their electricity to urban areas where the power is needed.

The $10 billion to $12 billion proposal by ITC Holdings Corp., of Novi, Mich., would cover 3,000 miles over seven states, including Wisconsin, and could wind up in or near Madison.

Like American Transmission Co., which owns transmission lines in parts of Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, ITC is an independent transmission company, and it operates in some areas adjacent to ATC’s territory. ITC owns high-voltage lines in most of Michigan as well as parts of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri. ITC recently bought the transmission assets of Interstate Power & Light, the Iowa utility subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp., of Madison.

The proposal would involve building massive 765-kilovolt transmission lines — nearly twice the capacity of the biggest lines now running through the state, at 345 kilovolts — and would run through parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

A conceptual map has the line entering Wisconsin at the state’s border with Minnesota and Iowa, about halfway between La Crosse and Prairie du Chien, and heading east toward what appears to be the Madison area. An ITC official did not provide site details.

“If all goes well, we could start construction in two years. This is obviously a project of significant scope,” said Lisa Aragon, ITC’s director of strategic initiatives. “We are aggressively targeting 2020 (for the lines) to be in service.”

The huge transmission cables could carry up to 12,000 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, reducing carbon emissions by up to 34 million metric tons, the equivalent of annual emissions from at least seven 600-megawatt coal-fired power plants, said ITC chairman and chief executive Joseph Welch.

“The Green Power Express is in many ways the true definition of a ‘smart grid,’ ” Welch said in a prepared statement. It is part of “a bigger ITC vision of a super regional high-voltage transmission backbone,” he said.

Wisconsin regulatory officials, utility companies and environmentalists agree that more line capacity is needed to transport electricity generated by the growing number of wind farms. But they’re not sure ITC’s plan for giant-sized lines is the answer.

Michael Vickerman, executive director of the Madison environmental group, Renew Wisconsin, said he has “reservations” about the need for 765-kilovolt lines. Smaller transmission upgrades can accommodate new wind generation, he said.

Wisconsin Public Service Commission Chairman Eric Callisto also has questions.

“I don’t want to close any doors to what they have proposed but I have lots of grave concerns about the cost,” he said. ITC is proposing “very large lines” that would require “very large right-of-ways,” Callisto said. A right-of-way is the legal permission to use a property owner’s land or the area above it.

Callisto is part of a five-state panel — involving Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota North Dakota and South Dakota — discussing how to move electricity east from windier western states, and how to pay for that. The group has been looking into 345-kilovolt lines, Callisto said, and hopes to make recommendations this fall.

“We have to make sure that what we’re paying for benefits Wisconsin ratepayers,” he said.

In light of that effort, ITC may be a bit premature, a spokesman for Alliant said.

ITC’s proposal, submitted Monday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is not the only one of its type. American Electric Power, of Columbus, Ohio, said in December it is “evaluating the feasibility of building a multi-state, extra-high voltage transmission project across the Upper Midwest to support the development of renewable energy.” Wisconsin is not part of the preliminary map for that proposal.

ATC is looking forward to examining ITC’s plan, said ATC vice president of public affairs, Randy Satterfield.

The idea is to be able to tap into renewable energy sources to meet portfolio standards, Satterfield said. In Wisconsin, state law requires 10 percent of the electricity used to be from renewables by 2015, but the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming recommended last year raising that to 25 percent renewable sources by 2025.

Renew Wisconsin’s Vickerman said super-sized transmission lines would be more than what’s needed just to carry wind energy. If new coal-fired power plants are built, their electricity would also travel along the lines, making it hard to characterize the investment as green power.

“If we had a national renewable portfolio standard, this would make more sense to me. But right now, we don’t have one,” Vickerman said.

By Judy Newman

Wisconsin State Journal

9 February 2009

Tags: Wind power, Wind energy

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