Obama promoting transmission again…
August 12th, 2013
On a bit of a transmission meander lately…
Based on the Fahey/AP articles on transmission lately, I mean really, how often is there anything about transmission in the STrib, I’ve felt something approaching. Perhaps it was the MISO Board of Directors meeting next week in St. Paul (HEY, check this out, you can watch it online, WebEx Information WebEx Password: Sr789456, or even head over to the shindig in St. Paul Hotel!
Then, I was reading the transcript for the PEPCO 2Q Earnings Call (pretty stimulating stuff), where they were talking about the undergrounding in DC:
Seeking Alpha – PEPCO 2Q Earnings Transcript
And here’s a news report and video about it, dig the price, $1.90 – $3.25 a month — that’s reasonable in my cheapskate book:
PEPCO, DC Officials Discuss $1 Billion Underground Wires Plan
That’s exactly what we should be doing. Complaints about “reliability” are distribution line issues, and look at how those utilities out there that are deregulated have cut maintenance to ZERO, think Aug. 13, 2003 (NERC Blackout Report HERE). And as I finish that, I see yet another Fahey/AP article published today, this time about Obama stumping for transmission AGAIN:
As cost of weather related outages rises, White House says grid should be made tougher
So off to the White House, where the PR is about “Protecting the Electric Grid From Increasingly Severe Weather Due to Climate Change” and what’s the real theme? Hey, it’s all about economics!
Economic Benefits of Increasing Grid Resilience to Weather Outages
This builds on his Memorandum earlier this summer:
Which of course builds on his Executive Order promoting transmission and naming projects for “fast tracking,” two of which I was working on at the time, Susquehanna-Roseland and CapX 2020 Hampton-La Crosse. That was:
and the Interagency Rapid Response Team for Transmission
For a list and map of the transmission line pilot projects please visit:
www.doe-etrans.us
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