Legalectric

Last week, there was a Prehearing conference for the New Jersey docket in the Susquehanna-Roseland transmission project.  Stop the Lines was there, and several other potential intervenors, to discuss the schedule, which will stretch out likely most of the year, with a decision probably in early 2010.  This project is in the Mid-Atlantic National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, so if the utility doesn’t get its decision in a year, they could push it up to the Feds.

CLICK HERE FOR PSE&G’S SUSQUEHANNA-ROSELAND PROJECT LINK

Their site is cute — it starts with the bold proclamation:

DO YOU KNOW?

The purpose of the Susquehanna-Roseland

line is to ensure reliability in our

region — not to sell power to New York City.

Uh-huh… right…

Here’s a “Regional Planning” powerpoint from PSE&G from the 2/26/09 Highlands Council meeting:

PJM Regional Tranasmission Planning

And a recording of that meeting with the PJM presentation:

Highlands Council Meeting February 26, 2009

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Power line critics want to state case before BPU

Citizens group wants PSE&G to pay for its experts

By Colleen O’Dea • Daily Record • March 3, 2009

A citizens group that opposes Public Service Electric and Gas Co.’s proposed power line project is seeking to intervene in the company’s application before the state Board of Public Utilities.

The 300-member Stop the Lines group also is asking the BPU to require PSE&G to pay for it to hire experts to refute the company’s contentions in support of its application to build new towers and add 500 kilovolt lines along the 46-mile transmission corridor from the Pennsylvania border through Morris County to Roseland.

“It was absolutely crucial for us to intervene in this process on behalf of citizens along the proposed route of this seemingly unnecessary expansion,” said David Slaperud, a resident of Fredon and trustee of Stop The Lines.

Motion filed

Slaperud said the organization filed a motion to intervene in PSE&G’s application before the BPU last Thursday during a scheduling conference on the $750 million project. He said the Fredon School District and Willow Day Camp in Lake Hopatcong have filed similar motions. The BPU has not acted on any of these yet.

Last Thursday, PSE&G attorneys met with several BPU staffers, and state Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Sheehan in Newark to discuss a schedule for the application.

“Board staff expects the board to issue a pre-hearing order setting forth the procedural schedule and overall nature of the proceedings after its agenda meeting on March 12,” said Doyal Siddel, a BPU spokesman.

PSE&G has filed an application to upgrade the existing power line corridor with towers as high as 195-feet tall and add lines carrying another 500 kilovolts of power to prevent circuit overloads and power outages that could begin in 2012 without the work.

PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission cooperative, has ordered the work be done.

In papers filed last week, Slaperud said it’s important that Stop the Lines become a party to the process because its members “live, work and recreate” along the line and “will be substantially, specifically and directly affected by the outcome of this contested case.”

The papers question the need for the upgrade and the requirement that all ratepayers in New Jersey and the rest of the 13-state region pay for it. Stop the Lines asks that alternatives, including greater conservation, be considered. The group also asserts that the taller towers will destroy scenic vistas, would be unsafe if placed in the existing 150-foot right of way and the lines on them will generate higher electromagnetic fields, which could affect the health of those living nearby.

Pay for experts

Stop the Lines’ filing asks that PSE&G be required to pay for it to hire experts because the “current economic crisis” has made it difficult for the group to hire its own lawyers and because “PSE&G was saved the expense of intervenor experts that would have been assessed had they brought their application to the 15 individual planning boards in communities along the route.”

PSE&G officials were unavailable to comment Monday, but a spokeswoman said last month that the company did not believe it should be forced to pay for expert testimony for the line’s opponents.

Looks like Xcel fried my NoCapX site, eh?  Just like my computer the afternoon before the Chisago hearing started…  Anyway, I can’t get anything to upload, so I’ll do it here and link over there.

NoCapX 2020 had filed a Motion to reopen the hearing when the news came out that utilities were seeing an unprecedented drop in demand… it was denied, BUT, there was this opening:

NoCapX may file an offer of proof if it has newly obtained evidence that calls into question the Applicants’ peak demand forecasting. The offer of proof will be included in the record and forwarded to the Commission in the event that it chooses to review it.

So today I got that filed:

Offer of Proof – NoCapX 2020

Affidavit of Overland

Exhibit A-Wall Street Journal – Surprise Drop in Power Use

Exhibit B – Xcel Investor Annual Summary

Exhibit C – Otter Tail Corporation – SEC 10K

Exhibit D – EIA – Electric Power Monthly, Chap 5

Exhibit E – 2008 NERC Reliability Assessment

And now, on to Exceptions to the ALJ Recommendation

A little birdie told me that the Comment period on the Green Power Express rate docket at FERC has been extended to March 6, a week from now.

To find the FERC docket (maybe there’s a quicker way, but this is all I know so far…), CLICK HERE and search for docket ER09-681.

The filing is just too big to upload, but you can see the redacted version here:

Green Power Express FERC Rate Filing

What they’re wanting to do is stick their Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) into the rate base… they want to be able to charge us for this, for putting this together!?!?!  “Who” is the rate base in this, what are the costs, at what point could they be assessed?

I’m struggling to wrap my pea brain around this, but I’m wondering what the difference is between this and what Xcel got in the 2005 Transmission Omnibus Bill from Hell, other than a much wider rate base:

Minn. Stat. 216B.16, Subd. 7b

The rate base that ITC Holdings could spread this over is immense, as opposed to Minnesota’s utilities’ rate base, and the idea of paying for development of this phenomenally stupid idea just galls me… but I’ve got some reading and thinking to do here.   Intervenors are lining up to weigh in and fight about it.

And then there’s that 7,000MW of wind in the MISO queue in Illinois, and it’s the Chicago transfer numbers they want to keep secret.  Shouldn’t someone tell them that there’s all that wind in Illinois?

I’m printing out this sucker for a winter night’s read…

Check it out — what do you think?

Tomorrow a.m., at too early o’clock, there’s a “Breakfast with Gary” panel discussion on Xcel’s Hiawatha Project.  Gary Schiff is the 9th ward council rep, here’s the map. Xcel’s proposed Hiawatha Project runs right through the heart of the district — their preferred route is the Midtown Greenway — great, wonderful idea — whatever are they thinking?!?!?!

Moi is on the agenda, so I’ll be up at “even more too early o’clock” to get there, and from the looks of it outside, Ken and Krie might get hitched to a sled.  Snow is letting up, and the guy across the street in Wadley’s old house is blowing snow.

Breakfast with Gary Schiff

Panel discussion of Xcel Energy’s Hiawatha Project

Friday, February 27
7:30 to 9 a.m.
Mercado Central
1515 East Lake Street
Bloomington and Lake in Minneapolis
(remember Antiques Minnesota?)

Be there or be square!!

Ever wonder what’s wrong with this electric grid that too many are spending too much time to fix?  As in, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!”  Here’s an article sent by Ann Rasmussen, of Dorchester Citizens for Safe Energy, fighting the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway, that gives the best and most concise statement of the problem that I’ve found.  Grappling with this will give you a solid context for understanding all the transmission proposals criss-crossing the US that we’ve seen lately.

What’s Wrong With The Grid

From What’s Wrong with the Grid?