Legalectric

Another little birdie said that the MISO meeting to update everyone sitting in queue about their transmission plans was a bust… the good news, from my perspective, is that they don’t seem to be able to promise transmission for wind.  Projects are added and drooled over, but there’s always problems and it’s not going anywhere, the same problems exist throughout:

SPA Update & Constraint Mitigation Kickoff Feb 26 2009

At the meeting, they identified about 7 projects that might be able to make the transmission work from Group 6, one of which is Bent Tree I in Freeborn County.  But there’s bad news — it will only require 7 new 345 lines to make these projects work, including a double-circuited 345kV line 345 double-circuit from Lakefield Jct.  to Adams, extending the “Split Rock to Lakefield” as I expected since that 2002 SW MN 345kV project.  Essentially, they’re doing #9 of the WRAO Report.

So, to recap, they’re talking 7 – 345kV lines, some 765kV lines, they’re talking a SECOND double circuit of the Brookings CapX 2020 line… building massive transmission TO THE EAST COAST!

AAAAAAAAAGH!

When will they understand what NYISO and ISO-NE understand — that there is renewable energy there too — where’s the market?  And tranmission is no way to do this, there are better ways.  Applies to the Chicago market too:

Michigan looks offshore for energy

By GEORGE WEEKS
Syndicated Columnist

Michigan was the Arsenal of Democracy in the mid-20th century. Gov. Jennifer Granholm strives to make it an arsenal of alternative energy in the early 21st century.

“She wants Michigan to be the leader in every sector of energy,” Stanley “Skip” Pruss, director of the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, said in a phone interview Friday.

Pruss, former deputy director of the Department of Environmental Quality and an assistant attorney general under Granholm and legendary Frank Kelley, said Michigan could be a “game changer” in wind energy.

He revealed that Wisconsin Gov. James Doyle seeks “a collaborative effort” on generating energy from offshore windmills in Lake Michigan.

Offshore wind has more punch than onshore wind. And the deeper the water, the more the punch, so near-shore is not as potent as far out.

Last week, an extensive examination of the offshore issue in the Traverse City Record-Eagle had this alert: “Nothing’s imminent, but state and environmental regulators are preparing for the possibility that utility developers may want to harness wind power from Lake Michigan and other big lakes.”

Subsequently, seriousness of such offshore preparations was underscored at assorted state forums, including the Michigan Wind Conference in Detroit, where Jennifer Alvarado, executive director of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, sought to “showcase Michigan’s potential in being a major player when it comes to wind energy.”