Legalectric

Folks, this one is HUGE! It’s FOUR dockets now consolidated into CN-25-117. “Power on Midwest” is:

• Big Stone South-Brookings County-SD/MN Border 765 kV
  MISO LRTP #22 – South Dakota portion
  Otter Tail Power Company, Xcel Energy
• SD/MN Border-Lakefield Junction 765 kV
  MISO LRTP #22 – Minnesota portion
  ITC Midwest, Otter Tail Power Company, Xcel Energy
• Lakefield Junction-MN/IA Border 765 kV
  MISO LRTP #23
  ITC Midwest
• Lakefield Junction-Pleasant Valley-North Rochester 765 kV
  MISO LRTP #24
  Great River Energy, ITC Midwest, Xcel Energy
• Pleasant Valley-North Rochester-Hampton 345 kV
  MISO LRTP #25
  Xcel Energy, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, the City of Rochester

Comments I filed Monday (what a week, it’s a hat trick — these Comments due Monday, Maple River-Cuyuna 345kV on Tuesday, and “Gopher to Badger” on Wednesday.

There’s so much going on at the “North Rochester” substation, and in addition to the just dropped “Gopher to Badger” transmission line, there’s the just

And don’t forget this one, I think I did! This is a little bitty line, well DOUBLE CIRCUIT 345kV, jumping across Hwy. 52 from the “North Rochester” substation to a data center proposed for Pine Island, one that Pine Island really wants, and seems to want to give away perks to a massive high revenue data center owner/operator. WTAF? They need subsidies why??? This is classic example of a City acting against interest. It’s not like other communities are welcoming data centers, why give it to them? How much water and from where? How much electricity, and from where? Oh, well, we may know from where:

It’s here, 2nd HUGE transmission line application to drop this week, FIFTH since the beginning of the year, FIFTH in the last 30 days! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Here’s the Application – I recommend starting off with the Application, then Appendix D, Xcel Energy Revenue Requirement and Appendix E, Planning Analysis (hey, App E is ONLY 400+ pages!!!):

The Gopher-Badger 765kV Transmission Project application is soon to drop, per today’s filing:

The PERTINENT part, application expected February 6, 2026, THIS FRIDAY:

When it’s out, I’ll post it here.

Oh, lordy, a handful, or more, of prior non-transmission clients affected by this — got notice from two recently, they learned from postcards in the mail. No, that’s not campaign pre-caucus blurbs! Very glad they didn’t throw them away. Also heard of another person down in the Iowa section today! So many are affected by this MISO Tranche 2.1.

Now, on to the “Power on Midwest” projects that dropped today:

These were FOUR Certificate of Need dockets, CN-25-117, CN-25-118, CN-25-119, and CN-25-120. They’ve been consolidated into ONE. Here’s the rough breakdown from the application (linked below, p. 4-5):

Here’s the application, all across southwest and south central Minnesota, and heading north to the “North Rochester” substation north of Pine Island and on to Hampton:

A little light reading so you’ll be ready for the round of scoping & early comment meetings in a week or two…