Legalectric

This article was in MinnPost on Friday, somehow I missed it — Steve Berg did a great job spelling it all out.  Perhaps Xcel will get the message that they’ve really screwed up and need to do this differently?

Here’s the referenced Minneapolis City Council Health, Energy and Environment Committee’s Resolution:

Resolution of Health, Energy & Environment Committee

And here’s Steve Berg’s article in toto:

Power lines over the Midtown Greenway? A classic case of destroying a place to save it

Remember Aesop’s fable about the foolish couple who killed the goose that laid golden eggs? Xcel Energy apparently forgot to reread the tale before launching a plan to run a high-voltage power line over the rim of the Midtown Greenway in south Minneapolis. Like the fable, Xcel’s plan is layered in irony and fraught with unintended consequences.

Here’s hoping that the City Council on Friday can put the brakes on the project long enough for the electric utility and its state regulators to take a deep breath and consider a better solution.

The good part about this particular story is that the Midtown neighborhoods are in the midst of revival. When the recession ends, Xcel expects more growth in a part of the city that already uses more power than its aging grid can handle. It needs more service.

But Midtown owes its success largely to the greenway itself, a remarkable bike trail and linear park carved out of an old railroad trench. Hundreds of new homes and offices have been built along the 5.5-mile greenway in recent years, and more are anticipated. For Xcel to run a high-voltage line over the greenway’s edge figures to ruin the very attraction responsible for the area’s revival.

This is more than a little crazy. A better idea would have been to bury the new line beneath Lake Street (which runs parallel to the greenway) during the street’s recent reconstruction. Apparently Xcel wasn’t interested at the time.

Another alternative
Now the city’s preferred alternative is to bury the line beneath East 28th Street. Xcel complains that going underground would double the project’s $15 million cost, and suggests obliquely that the extra burden might be borne by the neighborhood’s ratepayers, or perhaps the city’s.

It’s clear that underground lines cost more, both to install and maintain. But when Xcel adds service to a new subdivision on the Twin Cities edge, the cost is laid off against the entire rate base. There’s no good reason the cost of updating service in a city neighborhood shouldn’t be handled in the same way – especially when a regional asset like Midtown Greenway is involved.

Indeed, a trend toward infill development will cause similar conflicts in the future as older neighborhoods add demand and require upgraded service. Infill development carries many social, environmental and economic benefits to a metropolitan region. Ratepayers in those neighborhoods shouldn’t be penalized with higher rates than those charged to ratepayers on the suburban fringe.

Three open houses held
Xcel doesn’t need Minneapolis’ official blessing to proceed with its application to the Public Utilities Commission for an overhead line. But it has promised to involve neighborhood residents and city officials in forging a final design. To that end, it has held three open houses on the issue, pointing out that this line would provide power to an additional 7,500 homes and that the 1.25-mile project — running roughly between Hiawatha Avenue and Interstate Hwy. 35W — is part of a larger effort to upgrade service to south Minneapolis.

“We’ll consider input about issues such as aesthetics and recreation in the design and location of the infrastructure and we’ll offer alternatives for consideration,” Judy Poferl, Xcel’s regional vice president, said last fall in launching the project.

But Xcel has failed to convince the neighborhoods or City Hall that going overhead is the best alternative. The Midtown Greenway Coalition has urged Xcel to look more closely at conservation measures. And the City Council’s Health, Energy and Environment Committee (PDF) has concluded that an overhead line would be incompatible with the character of the greenway and its environs.

“A buried line makes more sense in this kind of urban environment,” said Council Member Robert Lilligren.

The county’s interest
Perhaps more than any party, Hennepin County has an interest in the issue’s outcome. The county’s railroad authority owns the greenway and its public-works department recently finished rebuilding nearby Lake Street.

In opposing the overhead line, Commissioner Peter McLaughlin points out the greenway’s status as a historic district and a regional recreation asset. “We have several avenues to explore,” he said. “In the end it may work out that going underground is the only alternative that works for them – and that’s what we hope happens.”

The city, county, state and federal governments have invested millions of dollars in the greenway corridor. Private interests have responded in kind. All have a big stake in protecting their investments. The greenway has boosted a part of the city that’s still a long way from reaching full potential. Why kill the goose just as the golden eggs have begun to appear?

Poor Xcel, getting picked on… a City of Minneapolis resolution to delay the route application for the Hiawatha Project transmission line, and a unanimous preference for undergrounding if it should be built.  SNORT!

LET’S SEE THE SOUTH MINNEAPOLIS LOAD SERVING STUDY (which the Hiawatha Project is supposedly based on) and the SOUTH MINNEAPOLIS ELECTRIC RELIABILITY PROJECT STUDY which is shooting in a 345kV line from Hwy. 280 to the new Hiawatha substation… “100 MW need” my ass…

Here are 16 questions posed by Midtown Greenway to Xcel and 9 answers:

List of 16 Questions for Xcel

9 Answers from Xcel

Piecing together studies found on line, here’s what I think Xcel is up to:

Xcel’s plans for power line run into opposition

By STEVE BRANDT, Star Tribune

January 26, 2009

A resolution asking Xcel Energy to delay its proposed high-voltage transmission line in south Minneapolis and offering an alternate route advanced Monday at City Hall.

The resolution sent to the full council is a rebuff to Xcel’s preferred route for the power line along the rim of the Midtown Greenway recreational corridor.

It was approved without opposition by the council’s Health, Energy and Environment Committee and is due for a Feb. 6 council vote.

The language approved Monday asks Xcel for more study of electrical needs in the central Lake Street corridor that the line would bisect and urges that alternative ways to supply those needs be investigated.

Bury the line?

But if the line is needed, it should be buried under E. 28th Street, according to the resolution by Council Members Gary Schiff, Robert Liligren and Cam Gordon. Xcel has said burying the line would add nearly $16 million to the cost.

Xcel spent much of its presentation arguing that localized power-generation projects or conservation measures alone won’t come close to negating the need for an additional 100 megawatts of power to the area to assure reliable service.

The utility proposes to build the line mostly on the south rim of the greenway, crossing its bike and walking paths four times.

The $15 million project would also include a substation on the east side of Hiawatha Avenue at 28th, where an existing transmission line now runs, and another on Oakland Avenue.

The Midtown Greenway Coalition, an advocacy group for the corridor, also has opposed Xcel’s preferred route and has sought more study of alternatives.

Betty Mirzayi, Xcel’s project manager, said the company forecasts growth in demand for electricity of 1.5 percent annually for the area to be supplied by the proposed line.

She called the proposed line essential to meeting demand caused by redevelopment in the area that has “stretched our capacity to the limit.”

Wanting more proof

But speakers among the many residents who appeared in support of the resolution said they want more proof that the power line is the only way to improve service.

They also argued that the line would stunt planned housing development along the greenway because potential residents would be leery of living near the line.

One legislator, Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, said later Monday she’s considering legislation that would require additional analysis by the state and Xcel of any health effects associated with the high-voltage line in areas with high poverty or high minority concentrations, which describes portions of the proposed route.

Mirzayi said the permitting process, which will be under the authority of state agencies, provides an arena for analysis of the issues raised by those opposed to the line. Xcel plans to submit its proposal to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission by the end of March and wants to begin using the new facilities in the first half of 2011.

Take your transmission line and go home, Xcel…

The Alley, the Phillips neighborhood newspaper, has a few articles that you should check out:

Power or Problem to the People?
Xcel’s Proposed High Voltage Lines–more time needed to develop alternatives

By Eric Hart

In late September 2008, Xcel Energy announced its Hiawatha Project that seeks to increase the amount of electricity flowingto the Midtown area of south Minneapolis.

The plan includes two new substations,one near Hiawatha Avenue and anothernear I-35W, which are to be connected by two high voltage transmission lines. The
potential area for the transmission lines is parallel to the Midtown Greenway between 26th and 31st Streets. It is our understanding that the only approval needed by Xcel is a routing permit from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Xcel does not have to prove the need for the project or study alternatives to it like they would for a larger project. Their application to the PUC could come as early as late January 2009.

We have learned from Xcel and businesses in the corridor that there have been power quality issues that have adversely effected some businesses. It is important that the corridor is served with high quality, reliable power. However, simply running high voltage lines on huge towers through the Greenway corridor or along residential streets is not the long-term solution that causes the least harm to the people in the effected neighborhoods and promotes a
more sustainable future. As of December 3, 2008 the Midtown Greenway Coalition “currently opposes” the Hiawatha Projectgiven the lack of detailed data from Xcel and the lack of any serious alternatives analysis so far. Visit www.midtowngreenway.org to see the Coalition’s policy resolution or watch for updates on this issue.

The Coalition is working with Xcel, the effected neighborhoods and others to explore solutions that negate the need for the power lines and substations. Alternatives include aggressive electricity conservation, distributed electricity generation (such as solar power or co-generation of heat and power), upgrading the local distribution system, and high-tech demand management systems.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Recommend to the following parties that alternatives to the Hiawatha Project be studied and that more time be allowed for this purpose: Minneapolis Council
Members (contact info at: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/) or Xcel Energy (Paul Adelmann, paul.adelmann@
xcelenergy.com, 612 630-4384).
• If energy conservation and renewable energy interest you, volunteer your help or request that updates be emailed to you, contact Tim Springer at 612-879-0105 or tim@midtowngreenway.org.
• Finally, participate in one or both of these upcoming meeting [that are now past tense, happened Thursday].

Eric Hart is a resident of Longfellow Community and a Midtown Greenway Coalition board member.

Thursday afternoon and again in the evening, Xcel held an Open House for its proposed “Hiawatha Project,” transmission through Phillips.

What I learned:

From Pam Rasmussen:  Conductor specs — 795 ACSS DOUBLE CIRCUIT and NOT bundled.  But there’s not much impact on the capacity, it’s essentially the same.  Here’s the conductor spec chart, where you can look up 795kCmil on the left and then go over to the right to 115kV — remember this is for 1 circuit, so for 2, double it — this is from the SW MN 345kV case:

Ex-35-App 7-Conductor Spec

From Dave Callahan: The area on Hiawatha where they’re looking at sticking a substation is North of Lake, on the East side of Hiawatha, where the northwest end of that Target complex abuts another group of buildings on Minnehaha backing up to Hiawatha.  There’s no road access, and there’s been talk of extending the Midtown Greenway from a bit north through this area towards Lake Street.  It sounded like Xcel had already had discussions of how to put a substation there and leave room for the Greenway expansion.  As there’s no road, the easiest way I see to get there is to start at Cedar and head east on Hiawatha, tromp on it to get some lift and do an Evil Kinevil over Hiawatha and land there… otherwise, try walking from Minnehaha.  It’s just to the right of the “A” below:

View Larger Map

Recently, Xcel had announced that its preferred route is along the Midtown Greenway. In looking at routes, and digging through my files, I’d discovered the Metro Load Serving Study from 2001.   That  study says, about plans for South Minneapolis:  Oh my, LOTS about South Minneapolis, I’m going to have to do a whole separate post on that.  Manana…

At the July 24, 2008, NM-SPG meeting, there was this presentation, per the minutes:

7.1.4. South Minneapolis
Mr. Standing, XCEL, presented the South Minneapolis Electric Reliability Project (SMERP) study. Mr. Standing stated 4 options were studied. The preferred option includes a new 345 kV line in-service in approximately 2013-2020 from the New Hwy 280 345/115 kV substation to the New Hiawatha substation.

NM-SPG Meeting Minutes July 24, 2008

And from the 2007 Biennial Transmission Plan, we have this snippet that gives us a peek at their plans:

Alternatives. Initial investigation and scoping discussions have led to the development of three potential alternatives:
(1) Construct a new 115 kV line from a new Hiawatha Substation along Highway 55 to a new Oakland Substation near Lake Street and I-35W. The line would then continue south to a new Highway 62 Substation near Highway 62 and Nicollet Avenue. The line would continue to its final termination at a new Penn Lake Substation near I-494 and Sheridan Avenue.
(2) Similar to Option 1, but the final 115 kV line would stretch from Highway 62 Substation to the existing Wilson Substation near I-494 and Wentworth Avenue.
(3) Construct two smaller 115 kV loops with new 115 kV lines running from Hiawatha to Oakland to Elliot Park and a second loop from Penn Lake to Highway 62 to Wilson.

That section of the 2007 Biennial Transmission Plan is just too big.  CLICK HERE and click on section 7.5 and scroll down to the 3rd and 4th to the last pages.

In that section of the 2007 Transmission Plan, it describes a “need” in South Minneapolis:

Inadequacy. Loading on Xcel Energy’s 12.4 kV distribution system in south Minneapolis has reached levels where numerous single contingencies can lead to overloads elsewhere in the system. Many of the distribution substations served by the south Minneapolis transmission loop have either reached their capacities or will in the near future, as Xcel Energy is forecasting 100 MW of load growth in south Minneapolis over the next ten years due to redevelopment in many areas of the city.

Are you paying attention?  The “inadequacy” is in the 12.4kV distribution system.  Or the “inadequacy” IS the 12.4kV distribution system.  Also note that they are forecasting a load growth of 100MW over the next 10 years.  Don’t forget these points.

When you take the plans that are out there for the taking, and sketch them out, here’s what it looks like (this is old news, but once more with feeling):

Xcel, when you’ve got an inadequacy with your 12.4kV distribution system, and power quality issues at some of the big electric users, why would you think that this big linked addition of transmission is the answer.  How about trying a distribution upgrade — isn’t it long overdue?  And underground that distribution while you’re at it!

Xcel announced yesterday that its preferred route for the “Hiawatha Project” is on the rim of the Midtown Greenway.

CLICK HERE for Midtown Greenway’s transmission site.

Today Xcel is holding two open houses on its “Hiawatha Project” and that’s one way to find out what Xcel is planning — but what they’re stating as the “project” is only a small part of what’s planned for South Minneapolis.

Xcel Open Houses

Plaza Verde

1516 E. Lake St.,  Minneapolis

12- 2 p.m.  & 5-7 p.m.

Here’s the rest of the story, what I’ve learned of Xcel’s plans from public information — here’s what it will look like, with routing variations, but at least part of their intent:

(can’t get the map right… grrrrrrrrr)

High-voltage line proposed along Midtown Greenway

By STEVE BRANDT, Star Tribune

January 14, 2009

Xcel Energy is proposing to route a high-voltage power line along the border of the Midtown Greenway, crossing the recreational corridor four times, and is seeking public reaction to the plan today.

The proposal to beef up Xcel’s transmission capacity in the Lake Street corridor has kicked up concerns among those who question the need for the line and worry about possible health effects and the visual impact.

But the utility said it needs to offer more reliable service in the area, which has redeveloped with denser housing and with once-vacant businesses now occupied.

Xcel is proposing an aerial line, which is cheaper but runs counter to the sentiment of area council members that the line should be buried. They prefer a route under E. 28th Street if the line goes ahead.

Betty Mirzayi, Xcel’s transmission project manager, said Xcel chose the route largely following the Greenway’s south rim because it’s a more direct route that would be cheaper to build. Xcel also looked at overhead routes along E. 26th, 28th and 31st streets for the east-west extension from its existing Hiawatha Avenue transmission line into the redeveloping Midtown area. But those routes would run closer to more houses, partially block sidewalks with poles and require removal or pruning of more trees, she said.

Mirzayi said Xcel also evaluated an underground alternative for the Greenway route. She said that the $15 million project includes $2 million for installing overhead lines. Burying the line along the Greenway corridor would cost $15.8 million more, a cost Xcel said would be borne by ratepayers.

But Council Member Robert Lilligren said he is concerned that an overhead Greenway line would discourage redevelopment, the reason that the city and county invested in the Greenway.

Xcel proposes to locate a new substation on the east side of Hiawatha at 28th Street, adjoining its current transmission line. A prime attraction of that site, now owned by the state and a railroad, is that it is away from homes and offers room for expansion, Mirzayi said. Xcel proposes to expand an old unused substation on Oakland Avenue S., purchasing an adjacent condemned triplex and a vacant lot.

The Midtown Greenway Coalition, an advocacy group with membership from neighborhoods bordering the bike-pedestrian corridor, has opposed the project for now. It said it would reassess that position if alternatives for improving the area’s power supply prove inadequate and there is adequate buffering of the line. Tim Springer, the coalition’s director, said the proposed routing makes finding alternatives such as conservation or load management even more important.

Mirzayi said the Greenway rim route leaves adequate room in the former rail trench owned by Hennepin County for the potential development of trolley or light-rail transit.

The company has delayed its project timetable somewhat, pushing back its application to the state for the project from this month to later this winter. It now hopes to begin using the line and two accompanying substations in the first half of 2011.