Subject: CAPX 2020 .... Minnesota high voltage transmission line fight
7 08
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From: JCMPelican
To: JCMPelican
Sent: 7/7/2008 12:09:51 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: CAPX 2020...Minnesota high voltage transmission lines......
Another fight over power lines underway in Minnesota
by Stephanie Hemphill
<http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/people/mpr_people_display.php?...>,
Minnesota Public Radio
June 18, 2008
Listen to feature audio
<http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/news/features/2008/06/1...>
*Hearings are under way around Minnesota this week about a new set
of power lines proposed for the state. This is the first major
transmission line project since the mid-1970s. The utilities
proposing the project say the lines are needed to make the electric
grid more reliable, and to lay the groundwork to supply more power
to Minnesota homes and businesses. *
St. Paul, Minn. — Eleven utilities have been working on the
so-called CapX 2020 project for four years. The companies are
determined to avoid the bitter controversy that plagued the last
major high-voltage power line project, they say. That project was
built in central Minnesota in the late 1970s. In those days, farmers
were so angry at the power companies, they cut down power poles and
blocked the project in other ways.
This time, the utilities have set up a huge public relations effort.
They mailed notices to more than 70,000 people along broad corridors
where the lines might travel, warning them the planning process is
underway.
The four new high-voltage lines would make the electric grid more
reliable, especially in parts of the state where the population is
growing, says Laura McCarten, Xcel Energy's Director of Regional
Transmission Planning, who also helps direct the CapX initiative.
"Because of the customer growth, we need new source, new pathways,
to deliver electricity in areas like St. Cloud, Rochester,
Alexandria: that without building something, those communities are
at risk of reduced reliability."
One line would run from Fargo North Dakota to St. Cloud and
Monticello. Another would run from Brookings, S.D. to the southeast
metro area. A third would run between the Twin Cities and La Crosse,
Wisc. A much shorter line would connect Bemidji and Grand Rapids.
All these lines are designed to move power from existing generating
plants to existing homes and businesses.
But at least one long-time critic of the electric power industry in
Minnesota argues the utilities are working the wrong way.
George Crocker, who directs the North American Water Office, a group
that got its start back in the power line fight of the 1970s, has
long promoted the idea of distributed generation -- small amounts of
power from small producers like windmills, that could spring up all
over the state.
A study just published this week shows utilities could add power
from distributed generation to the lower-voltage lines that already
criss-cross Minnesota, he says.
"Think of how a river forms. It's because all of the little rivers
join the big river. It's not the big river telling the little rivers
where to go; it's the little rivers that tell the big river where to
go. It's the same with power if we do it smartly."
The lower-voltage system can collect small amounts of power, and add
it to the high-voltage system, where it would ultimately travel to
where it's needed, he says.
That method is simpler and quicker and cheaper to add both
generation and transmission at lower power levels. Crocker predicts
the study -- called the Dispersed Renewable Generation Transmission
Study -- will change how we get energy.
"When the value of this type of thinking percolates into the
management of how utilities operate, we won't even be thinking about
CapX-type development anymore. This is a real deal that I am
absolutely certain we will not pass up."
Not everyone sees the report the same way, though.
Adding small power plants anywhere along the line affects the entire
grid, says Jared Alholinna, transmission planner at Great River
Energy, who helped write the report.
"The system east of the Rockies is all connected and the electrons
don't always flow in a straight path. Let's say from a generation
plant to the Twin Cities it takes circuitous paths, sometimes as far
north as Manitoba, and sometimes as far south as Nebraska, in making
its way back up, but that's what leads to regional reliability in a
transmission grid."
There has to be enough high-voltage power lines to accommodate added
power, he says.
"Just like congestion on a freeway, one of the ideas is that you
build a bigger freeway, so you can accommodate more cars and there's
less congestion. Especially when generation tends to travel further
distances."
The power lines proposed in the CapX 2020 project are needed now,
the utilities say. They're planning a second and third phase, and
they'll start talking about those next year. Meanwhile, they're
preparing environmental studies on CapX. The Minnesota Public
Utilities Commission will rule on whether the lines are needed in
the fall. Construction is not scheduled to start until 2010.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/18/power_lines/
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