Legalectric

The hearing schedule has been issued in the First Prehearing Order in the CapX 2020 docket.  For more info, go here:

CapX 2020 Transmission Prehearing Order

And for the whole scoop, it’s at www.nocapx2020.info

Hmmmmm… Outland Renewable Energy proposes another “it’s for wind line” NOT… what does this mean? Do I detect trajectory?

Otter Tail Power’s Big Stone II coal plant is floundering, and the transmission for that project is pending at the Minnesota PUC, transmission that necessarily must connect to CapX 2020’s “it’s for wind” NOT line:

• “Outland Renewable Energy” proposes an “It’s for wind” line…

• It’s a regular ol’ corporation, and does not have the power of eminent domain.

• FERC regulations prohibit any transmission provider to discriminate against generators, generation types, etc., wind, coal, nuclear, whatever… An “It’s for wind” line can’t be done. Legally it must transmit whatever is out there…

• oh… and a google reveals that Ingrid Bjorklund, V.P. of Governmental Affiars and Associate General Counsel for Outland, is also an Ottertail Power lobbyist.  She has since filed a termination notice for Otter Tail, hmmmmm.

Oh… OK… sigh…

Here’s their Press Release that was picked up verbatim by Shakopee Valley News and North American Windpower (Finance & Commerce did a bit better, bit it’s not online yet, rumor has it that F&C will be online soon) and probably others who didn’t put any thought into whether this is possible, legal, or just PR hype from toadies of coal hedging their bets as the transmission line that BSII depends on hangs in limbo…

OUTLAND ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR A COMMUNITY-WIND POWER LINE
December 21, 2007 – Chaska, Minnesota

Minnesota-based, Outland Renewable Energy, LLC (Outland) announced today their plan to build a community-wind generator-owned power line focused on moving wind energy from the wind-belt of southwest Minnesota to the Twin Cities area. Outland is a non-utility, private company and will finance the Minnesota Independence Line itself. This privately funded line will significantly increase the ability of wind energy resources available to meet the increasing demand for clean, renewable energy and will help Minnesota meet its Renewable Energy Standard, which states 25 percent of the state’s electricity will come from renewable energy sources by 2025.

“Outland is proud of its mission to harness the power of wind, creating a clean, safe and secure energy future for our communities,” said Ingrid Bjorklund, vice president of government affairs and associate general counsel for Outland Renewable Energy. “We are tackling the transmission bottleneck with an innovative solution to get the state’s abundant wind energy to market sooner.”

The Minnesota Independence Line will be a high-voltage transmission line approximately 150 miles in length, running from the Buffalo Ridge area to the Twin Cities area. This wind line will have the potential to move up to 3,000 megawatts of wind out of the wind-rich Buffalo Ridge region. Outland hopes to have the line operational in 2012. This will help the state meet the first milestone in the Renewable Energy Standard, which is 12 percent by 2012.

Since Outland’s wind-energy generation is community-based, it conforms to Minnesota’s goal that we develop more of our state’s renewable resources as homegrown energy. Outland’s commitment to Community-Based Energy Development (C-BED) ensures that Minnesota renewable energy and the associated economic development stays in the state.

As an extension of our wind generation, Outland’s transmission line is also community focused. Outland envisions that landowners along the transmission route will embrace and participate in community ownership. This will enable those communities in Minnesota that do not enjoy the same abundant wind resource that exists in southwestern Minnesota to share the economic benefits of the state’s wind energy resources.

“This is a community endeavor where we will actively reach out to our communities to discuss every step of the project,” Bjorklund said. “Outland has the expertise and financial strength to deliver the potential of wind energy to Minnesota and revitalize our rural communities.”

The transmission grid in southwest Minnesota is at its maximum capacity and cannot support the significant increase in new wind energy that will be needed to meet Minnesota’s Renewable Energy Standard. This transmission congestion in that area is causing a backlog of projects, which is inhibiting wind farms from fully developing. The Minnesota Independence Line will significantly increase transmission capacity in southwest Minnesota, which will help Outland deliver wind more quickly.

Just back from the CapX 2020 meeting in Fergus Falls, and learned from Tim Carlsgaard that an Xcel engineer told him that I was off on my suspicions on the 345kV structures.

You’ll note that the structures have arms only on one side and the line’s three phases are vertically arranged, and my suspicion was that before the line was even up, they’d be wanting to “upgrade” and add another full compliment of vertically arranged lines on the other side.  WRONG!!!!  What they say, and it passes the smell test, is that the DOT wouldn’t let them overhand the DOT right-of-way no matter how they squealed and squawked.

OH, OK.  Well, there you have it!  Thanks, Tim!

For the rest of the meeting, you’ll have to go over to www.nocapx2020.info.  But it’ll take a bit to get it posted.

YES!!!  A stray voltage win in Wisconsin, well, TWO stray voltage wins in Wisconsin.  It’s been a rough week for those poor folks at Xcel…

Here are the cases:

Gumz v. Northern States Power

Schmidt v. Northern States Power

And here’s an article from the Wausau Daily Herald:

Posted December 7, 2007

Stray-voltage award OK’d

State’s high court: Athens-area farmers due $532,000 in damages

By Kevin Murphy
For the Wausau Daily Herald

MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a $532,000 damage award Thursday to two rural Athens dairy farmers in a stray voltage lawsuit brought against Northern States Power Co.

In a 4-3 decision, the court also upheld Marathon County Circuit Judge Gregory Grau’s rulings that James and Michael Gumz filed the suit within the six-year time limit and jurors could not reduce the damage award based on any alleged deficient farming practices.

James Gumz, who lives along Highway E, said the case he filed in 2001 has dragged on so long that he was not excited by Thursday’s ruling.

“I will be when I see the money,” he joked.

The Gumz family’s dairy herd first exhibited production and health problems in 1991, which was 10 years after James and Michael bought their parents’ farm, served by an electric line installed in 1937.

Although as early as 1993 veterinarians suspected the cows’ symptoms might involve some “outside phenomena,” they concentrated on changing nutrition and milking equipment as the solutions.

Their veterinarian wrote NSP in 1996 stating she suspected stray voltage was causing the herd’s production problems and requested an inspection of the farm’s electrical system. Although NSP’s tests found no problems above a state-prescribed “level of concern,” an electrician hired by the Gumzes found much higher levels of stray voltage coming from off the farm.

On the electrician’s advice, the Gumzes installed electrical equipment, and fewer cows died and production increased. Problems returned by 1999, and when NSP’s test found no stray voltage problems and the Gumzes’ electrician did, the Gumzes filed suit in 2001.

After losing at trial and appeal, NSP appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court but lost again on their statute of limitations and other arguments.

“Prior to May 1996, the Gumzes did not know, nor with reasonable diligence should they have known, that stray voltage from Northern States Power was the cause of damage to their herd,” wrote Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.

Justices Annette Ziegler, David Prosser and Patience Roggensack dissented. 

And an Associated Press story:

 Supreme Court upholds nearly $533,000 award in stray voltage case

About time…

It’s here, on No CapX 2020:

Notice of Meetings in Republican Eagle