BIG transmission line from Canada
February 10th, 2012
A little birdie gave me a heads up yesterday… as if a big ol’ MinnCan tar sands pipeline wasn’t enough, now Minnesota Power wants to build a transmission line… make that TWO. There’s a 500kV line coming down from Canada to somewhere on the range, maybe Hibbing, and then there’s a double circuited 345kV from the west to Duluth. Fifty miles west of Duluth, that will start where???
Tell me this, MP, if this is intended to bring in hydro as a backup to wind, are you then shutting down the coal plant in Cohasset? Or are you going to be selling it on the market?
And here it is in the STrib:
Canada-to-Iron Range power line proposed
Article by: DAVID SHAFFER , Star Tribune
Updated: February 9, 2012 – 8:30 PMThe Duluth-based company, a division of Allete Inc., said it filed an intent to pursue the project with the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO), which manages the electrical grid in 11 states and Manitoba.
The project is tied to Minnesota Power’s agreement to purchase 250 megawatts of hydropower from Winnipeg-based Manitoba Hydro beginning in 2020. The power from Manitoba hydroelectric dams will serve as a backup to intermittent wind power generated at Minnesota Power’s wind farms in North Dakota.
Minnesota Power said the 500-kilovolt line would run south from Winnipeg and connect to a substation on the Mesabi Iron Range serving the taconite and paper industries.
Minnesota Power spokeswoman Amy Rutledge said the utility will consider building along existing transmission lines to reduce disruption. Xcel Energy Inc., based in Minneapolis, owns one transmission link to Canada, and Minnesota Power is sole or part owner of two others, she said.
Separately, Minnesota Power said it is evaluating with American Transmission Co. a proposed 50-mile, 345-kilovolt line from the Iron Range to Duluth. The cost and ownership shares of the projects have not been determined, the utility said.
Undergrounding Hiawatha!
January 13th, 2012
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the PUC did order that the Hiawatha Project transmission line be undergrounded.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The bad news is that NO ONE is addressing need, need has been presumed, despite lots of evidence in the record that the project is way way more than what is required for the claimed 55MW need, which in itself is questionable. Silence… Those who worked so hard to get a requirement for a Certificate of Need abdicated, zero follow through, after legislation passed to require a Certificate of Need, and it then wound its way through the PUC process, and there were NO intervenors.
Here’s the PUC’s deliberation:
It seems to end before they’re done, and there’s a note that complete audio will be posted later, so check back. Right now there’s about 45 minutes and it ends as they’re going through exceptions to the ALJ report, a prelude to the ultimate vote.
Here’s the report in theSTrib:
Xcel told to bury new power lines across south Minneapolis
Article by: STEVE BRANDT , Star Tribune
Updated: January 12, 2012 – 11:15 PM++++++++
A state board Thursday ordered that new high-voltage power lines across the heart of south Minneapolis be buried underground but deferred the question of who should pay the extra $13.6 million cost.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission ordered that the twin 115-kilovolt lines requested by Xcel Energy be deemed necessary but said they should be buried under E. 28th Street.
That’s a victory for the city and a number of neighborhood representatives. They argued that an alternative route that would run lines overhead or underground along the bike-pedestrian corridor was too disruptive. “It’s a huge victory, said Soren Jensen, staff chief for the Midtown Greenway Coalition.
But the precedent-setting question of who pays will require a separate proceeding that will last several months and determine whether all Xcel customers in Minnesota will help bear the cost of burying the lines or just those in Minneapolis.
The city argued that all Xcel customers should pay because the factors arguing for burying the route are so compelling that any other route, including the greenway, would be unreasonable. Burial of the lines, the city said, should thus be considered a standard cost, borne by all customers, rather than a special accommodation whose extra costs should accrue only to Minneapolis residents. Xcel agreed with that wider-cost impact.
But the PUC wasn’t ready to make that precedent-setting decision now, telling Xcel to file its views in 30 days in a proceeding that will give other potentially affected parties a chance to comment.
“There is no precedent case just like this,” said attorney James Strommen, who argued on behalf of suburban cities in support of the city position. “The standard is not always overhead in all cases, in our view.”
At the PUC’s request, Xcel generated estimates of the amounts needed to pay off the extra cost of the buried lines. To do so in the standard five years, the per customer cost would be $12 if spread statewide, and $83.40 if levied only within Minneapolis.
Xcel estimates that the lines and two new substations at either end, at Hiawatha and Oakland Avenues, will cost $42 million. The utility will refine those costs as it does final engineering for the project; it plans to break ground later this year and start operations in 2014.
Xcel argued that since 2006, electrical demand has exceeded its capacity to reliably provide service to customers in the south Minneapolis area. Opponents argued that Xcel has further plans to bisect south Minneapolis with transmission lines, has overestimated demand and should substitute conservation measures.
The utility originally proposed that the lines be built within the Midtown corridor paralleling Lake Street somewhere between E. 31st Street and E. 26th Street. It said that a greenway route would be cheapest but that option quickly drew opposition from the recreation lobby.
Hiawatha Project Comments due tomorrow
October 25th, 2011
(above – Overland’s take on what’s really happening here, that Hiawatha is “B to C” of a much larger project, one that’s been in progress for years, check the upgrades at that 280 and East Hennepin substation, and at the Wilson sub at 494 and Nicollet, if you want some concrete and steel proof)
Comments are due tomorrow by 4:30 on Xcel Energy’s Hiawatha Project. Send to:
Beverly Jones Heydinger, ALJ
Office of Administrative Hearings
P.O. Box 64620
St. Paul, MN 55164-0620
or email:
beverly.heydinger@state.mn.us
Some documents you might want to check out are:
For an even better showing of substations and which serve what area, where you can see that the Southtown Sub stretches to the southwest beyond the study zone, and that Aldrich serves a significant part of the study zone, and St. Louis Park a little bit. Check the Application, Appendix A, p. 24 of 102 (click for larger version):
And be sure to take a look at the Zima Schedule 2 and 3, I particularly like Sched. 3, that shows that there is a lot of wiggle room there for the transformers, look at Aldrich, even Elliot Park with the smaller transformers. Here’s Schedule 3 — click for a larger view.
Here are the exhibits that I entered at the public hearing:
10-694 – Ex. 27 – South Mpls Electric Reliability Study
10-694 – Ex. 28 – South Mpls Electric Distribution Delivery System Plan
10-694 Ex. 29 – pages from 2007 Transmission Plan
10-694 Ex 30-MAPP NM-SPG Meeting Minutes 7/24/2008
10-694 Ex 31 From SW MN 345kv Application, Appendix 7 Conductor Specs
Two things to check out to compare with their “forecasting” for this project:
PSEG’s mowing trees today
October 22nd, 2011
“We make things work for you.” Oh, ja, sure, you betcha…
And then there’s Obama’s “fast tracking” and PSEG’s Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line is one of the seven transmission lines Obama picked to ram through. Northwestern New Jersey is beautiful, a lot like the Minnesota “Range,” lots of rugged terrain, granite, and pine trees. My clients, Stop the Lines, are based in Newton, NJ, and Fredon Township, which are just west of the New Jersey Highlands, and just east of the Delaware Water Gap. It’s is such beautiful country. Not for long if PSEG has anything to say about it.
Guess what they’re doing at 7 a.m. on a beautiful fall morning? THEY’RE MOWING TREES DOWN:
This is a view off Verdona Road, a cul de sac off of Stillwater Road in Fredon Township. They started on Tuesday, and were out there today at 7:00 a.m. mowing down everything down to dirt. There was no notice to landowners and neighbors, just equipment out there clearcutting everything.
I’ve asked neighbors for more photos, will post if they arrive in the inbox.
Today – Public Hearings on Xcel’s Hiawatha Project
October 10th, 2011
Today are the public hearings for the Xcel Energy Hiawatha Project Certificate of Need for a transmission line through the Phillips Neighborhood.
Read the testimony, and check out Appendix A of the Application! To look at everything that’s been filed in this docket, go to www.puc.state.mn.us and then click the blue “Search eDockets” button and search for docket 10-694.
The Routing docket Intervenors fought hard to get legislation passed to require a Certificate of Need for this project and they got it. But here we are at the end of the Certificate of Need proceeding, and not a single one of them intervened in this Certificate of Need docket. THERE ARE NO INTERVENORS! So it’s up to the public to ask the questions and demand the answers.
Monday, October 10, 2011
2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Plaza Verde, 1516 East Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Be there or be square!