Legalectric

Rules? Who needs ’em?

My rulemaking petition is before the Public Utilities Commission tomorrow:

There have been a few filings in this docket. In chronological order, starting at the beginning, oh, with the statute first and then filings (and note, the statute does say “may.”):

• Rulemaking Petition – Minn. R. ch. 7850 & 7849 April 13th, 2026
• Comment on 7849 and 7850 Rulemaking Petition April 16th, 2026
• 7850 Rulemaking – Reply Comments May 7th, 2026

And here we go — they say it won’t start before 12:30 pm — that’s appreciated!

Routing the most massive of transmission lines through Minnesota without rules?

Or is it time for an award:

Trying to catch up, and some nasty stuff has gone through the City’s Planning Commission and then the Council. Ages ago, I was representing folks objecting to this “ash mining” scheme between the City and Xcel Energy, and the MPCA, focused around closing the dump.

What I’ve downloaded from the May meeting:

The LabUSA lease was appropriately terminated – that project lasted only one year, well DOH, what a scam that was! Has the City of Red Wing & Xcel lease been terminated? It wasn’t then, if so, when? Does the lease they had with Xcel still exist? If that lease is still ongoing, is Red Wing still paying Xcel? Is Xcel paying the City to use that property? IT’S A TWENTY YEAR LEASE!! What’s up with that??

Here’s the whole thing, what Xcel’s plan is for electric to the data center — all 3 pages — for some reason this little document keeps disappearing!

Note — it’s this 345kV little line for the data center. The 765kV comes up from Pleasant Valley down by I-90 to a new substation just north of the “North Rochester” substation (really north of Pine Island), and then exits that new substation and heads back south… right, makes a lot of sense, costs a lot of money… whose brilliant idea was this? AND there will be a connector from the new 765kV line (it’s all one line, don’t let them fool you), a 345kV connecting the two. So NO, the 765kV aren’t for the data center, but YES, there is power coming off that 765kV down to the North Rochester substation, so NO, not DIRECTLY connected, but YES, INDIRECTLY connected, and as we say in transmission, “IT’S ALL CONNECTED!” Hope that clears it up… SNORT!!

Now this 345kV line is a double circuited line to hop over Hwy 52, from the “North Rochester” (north of Pine Island) substation to Google’s Skyway Data Center. Compare this to the info from Xcel’s Electric Services Agreement for that same data center LARGE LOAD:

And the Transmission docket is open, TL-26-135, declared complete on May 12.

(taking forever to download here at the park… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

Here’s what the official map of this little stretch looks like, keep in mind that the Mankato-Mississippi 345kV line is removing and moving the 161kV underbuild and adding a second 345kV circuit. There’s a lot going on there, and it seems this line is having prostate trouble:

YEAAAAAAAAAAA, IT DOWNLOADED. 76MB?!?! Wouldn’t download, and even if it did, couldn’t upload it, just TOO BIG! Separated out the appendices from the narrative and it adds up to a fraction of that. A touch over 10 MB! Xcel, do you do this on purpose? (JUST DOWNLOADED, and am starting to read it — no answers yet!)

The Commission did declare the application complete:

Just filed, Environmental Report Scoping Comments of North Route Group and NO765MN, and process comments too: