CapX 2020 Certificate of Need at PUC
April 13th, 2009
This is a big week at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. They’re going to hear our arguments and decide whether CapX 2020 transmission, Phase I, is “needed” or not… a lot is riding on this, the direction of Minnesota’s energy future. Will we be doing it differently, or will we be stuck in the same central station coal scenario?
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:19 am
I support the Commission’s decision. Dispersed generation is something that needs to be explored and promoted, but the fact is that it can’t satisfy the needs put forth by the utilities in the next 5 – 10 years. Most new wind will come from high wind areas in the Dakotas and Western MN. Nathan Paine over at MN2020 just put out a good blog post on this subject poking holes in ILSR’s dispersed energy drum beat.
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 am
Matt –
Need? Earth to Mars, remember Xcel’s 10-K, demand is down down down? No way is this needed, it’s market driven, that’s all, and the MISO stated purpose is to displace natural gas with coal.
Thanks for the heads up on Entenza’s site, but in my view, he’s policy oriented planning his gubernatorial run, beating the wrong policy drum!
Carol
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:22 am
demand is down because of the economic slowdown. it is extremely shortsighted to delay investment when demand will inevitably trend upward in the next decades. That argument is similar to the argument that we don’t need to find alternative energies because gas prices are relatively low right now – we know as soon as there is an economic recovery, gas prices will skyrocket again.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:23 am
Also, there are reliability issues that need to be addressed right now and smaller lines won’t cut it. Finally, who is going to develop this dispersed energy in low wind areas?? Most new wind development will be in the Dakotas and Western MN I think.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 am
Demand started going markedly down in 2006, continued in 2007, 2008 and now we’ve got 2009.
I take it you weren’t around in the 70s when they overbuilt, and when they pulled half-built plants because they weren’t needed. My father built coal plants and the first Minnesota nuke back then!
Check out the work of Charlie Komanoff.
April 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Xcel’s 10-K shows system-wide peak demand increased from 9,104 MW in 2005 to 9,859 MW in 2006 and then decreased to 9,427 MW in 2007. What source are you using to claim system-wide demand went down in 2006?