STATUS: Development stage, with opposition.
OPPOSITION: Citizen's Energy Task Force
PROSPECTS: Indeterminate
BACKGROUND: ITC Holdings Corp. has been working over the past year to develop the "Green Power Express," a network of transmission lines that would allow the significant wind resources naturally abundant in the Midwest region to be developed and integrated into the electric grid. This project will create a network of transmission lines that form a high-voltage electric highway that will serve the region's growing demand for clean energy in the near term and provide the infrastructure to foster more efficient development of electric resources in the future. The entire project is currently estimated to cost approximately $10 to $12 billion. ITC estimates that approximately 12,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the high capacity and consistent wind areas will be enabled through the construction of the Green Power Express. Specifically, the project includes approximately 3,000 miles of new 765 kV transmission infrastructure and will traverse portions of 7 states including: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. The project is still in the development stage so further studies could refine the actual location of facilities needed. Construction will start once all of the related studies have been completed, regulatory approvals have been received and the detailed routing of the project has been completed and approved as appropriate. Due to the size and scope of this project along with the various state and federal approvals that will be required, ITC is aggressively targeting to have the Green Power Express in service by 2020. The Citizens Energy Task Force, a coalition of neighbors and citizens, is opposing the project and argues that the power lines would interfere with bird migration, hurt tourism and damage the ecosystem.
SOURCES: The Green Power Express (www.thegreenpowerexpress.com/); Chicago Tribune (http: //www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mn-midwestpowerline,0,2080189.story); Minnesota Public Radio (http: //minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/20/powerline_proposal/?rsssource=1)
Green Power Express is JCSP in project form. It starts in ND coal fields and proposes to bring that coal generation east. For more info, search www.legalectric.org for "Green Power Express" or "JCSP" or "UMTDI" and you'll see it's all connected. As to why it's not needed, search legalectric.org for NYISO and ISO-NE -- they don't want it and pulled out of announcing JCSP.
Posted by: Carol A Overland | 03/23/2009 at 10:15 AM