LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME




[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Plains and Eastern Clean Line seeks federal approval to sell capacity on proposed transmission line from Oklahoma Panhandle to Tennessee 

Credit:  By Paul Monies | The Oklahoman | newsok.com 30 June 2012 ~~

A company that hopes to connect wind farms in the Oklahoma Panhandle with utility customers in Tennessee filed an application Friday with the federal government to establish rates for the project.

Clean Line Energy Partners plans a $2 billion high-voltage, direct-current transmission line across Oklahoma, through Arkansas and into Memphis, Tenn. Its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asks for permission to negotiate rates and sell service for the 600-kilovolt transmission line, called the Plains and Eastern Clean Line.

Michael Skelly, president of Houston-based Clean Line Energy, said he expects the FERC application process to take fewer than six months.

“There are a lot of dimensions to a project like this,” Skelly said. “There’s a regulatory piece, there’s a technical piece, a permitting piece and grid interaction. This is part of the commercial piece.”

The 750-mile project will transmit wind power to a Tennessee Valley Authority substation in Memphis. FERC approval will let Clean Line negotiate arrangements with either wind producers in the Oklahoma Panhandle or utilities in the southeastern United States, Skelly said.

“They can buy capacity on the line, and that commercial arrangement would be the underpinning to what we’re doing,” he said. “(FERC) doesn’t set our exact tariff, but they make sure we use an open process and they make sure our rates are just and reasonable.”

The company wants approval to sell 75 percent of the capacity for the transmission line to customers at either end of the project, with the remainder sold under what’s called an “open-season” process. In May, Clean Line received FERC approval for its Rock Island Clean Line, a similar transmission project from Iowa to Illinois.

In the meantime, Plains and Eastern Clean Line representatives continue to meet with landowners, government officials, tribes and other stakeholders as it studies a proposed route for the transmission line from Oklahoma to Tennessee. More meetings are planned for later this year.

“We’ve been at it several years and it continues to move along,” Skelly said. “In March and April, we did a period of round-table discussions with county officials and interested stakeholders at locations between the Oklahoma Panhandle and Memphis. Public outreach is a big part of what we do.”

Plains and Eastern Clean Line already has agreements with Claremore-based Pelco Structural LLC to manufacture the monopoles for the transmission lines. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission last year approved Clean Line’s application to become a “transmission-only” public utility. The company had a similar application rejected by Arkansas regulators but continues to seek other options to operate in that state.

Wind producers face an uncertain future after the expiration of a federal production tax credit at the end of this year. The incentive allows for a 2.2 cent per kilowatt-hour tax credit for electricity generated by wind. It dates to 1992, but Congress has let it expire a couple of times since then. Wind power groups said without the credit, it will be harder to secure the financing for the up-front costs of construction, leases and machinery for wind farms.

Skelly said Clean Line is taking a long-term view to the tax credit’s expiration.

“We’re optimistic that there’s a place for this low-cost, clean energy over the long term as part of the U.S. energy portfolio,” Skelly said. “We think there will be some sort of incentive for a cleaner energy base; it may the form of the production tax credit, it may take some other form over the next few years.”

Source:  By Paul Monies | The Oklahoman | newsok.com 30 June 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky