NO Grid North Partners – transmission f/k/a CapX 2020

This week, the public hearings continue.  I’m out in Delaware, still, disappointed to miss this round, but I’ve got to plan to be able to be present for the evidentiary hearing, and that’s 2-3 weeks or more starting in July.

DON’T FORGET: DEADLINE TO INTERVENE IS JULY 3, 2008

If you’re not an intervenor, this is the time to get your evidence into the record, things like the MISO queue showing all the coal generation in line for interconnection, the effects of EMF given all the many miles of property, residences and farms that this project will cross, “socioeconomic impacts” such as the increased costs attributable to pollution if these lines spur construction of new coal generation, the decline in property values, the impact on tourism.

Comments from the hearings are starting to show up in the docket, to see them, go to www.puc.state.mn.us and then to “eDockets” and then “Search Documents” and search for 06-1115.  You’ll see “Comments” at or near the top.

Now’s the time to get this stuff in.  Show up and let them know, and if you can’t get there, send your comments BY AUGUST 4 @ 4:30 P.M. to:

email: capx.oah@state.mn.us

or

Hon. Beverly Jones Heydinger

Office of Administrative Hearings

P.O. Box 64620

St. Paul, MN  55164-0620

Here’s the Public Hearing schedule:

Monday, June 23, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – Marshall High School Auditorium, 400 Tiger Drive, Marshall, MN

Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 10:00 a.m. – Marshall High School Auditorium, 400 Tiger Drive, Marshall, MN

Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – Redwood Falls High School Auditorium, 100 George Ramseth Drive, Redwood Falls, MN

Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 10:00 a.m. – Arlington Community Center, Room 2, 204 Shamrock Drive, Arlington, MN

Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – New Prague High School Commons, 221 12th Street NE, New Prague, MN

Thursday, June 26, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – Lakeville South High School Auditorium, 21135 Jacquard Avenue, Lakeville, MN

Monday, June 30, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – Cannon Falls Elementary School, 1020 E. Minnesota Street, Cannon Falls, MN

Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – Tau Conference Center, Winona State University West Campus, 511 Hilbert Street, Winona, MN

Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – John Adams Middle School Auditorium, 1525 31st Street NW, Rochester, MN

While digging around, I learned that Xcel is planning a “CapX” transmission scheme for Colorado, too, the High Plains Transmission Express (HPX).  Yup, it’s even got its own webpage (HERE). The feasibility study is done, they’ve been holding “stakeholder” meetings.  Since they got this far, but have said they need legislative changes, $50 says they are getting that completed before the launch High Plains Express!

Interesting news over the wire just now — Dairyland Power has issued a Request for Proposals for 100MW of “combustion turbine peaking capacity and associated energy generation.”

Here’s their RFP:

Dairyland RFP for Power Supply Beginning June 1, 2013

It’s for certain parts of western WI.  So what’s the impact of this on CapX?  On Chisago…

Roger Moe is now stumping for CapX! How long has this been going on? Can’t tell, he’s not registered as a lobbyist, and sure should be!  This is a Certificate of Need docket and will soon be a Siting Docket!

Lobbyist Data for Roger Moe

Years ago he was a short-lived lobbyist for TRANSLink, so it’s no surprise, as CapX 2020 is TRANSLink deja vu all over again. Doug Johnson was on that as well, and I wonder if he’s on the bandwagon

Lobbyist Data for Doug Johnson

His CFBoard link says he’s still with Excelsior on the Mesaba Project (boo-hiss) though he’s no longer on SEH.

To get an idea about what TRANSLink’s about, here’s a TRANSLink power point from a National Wind Coordinating Committee in October, 2003:

TRANSLink – NWCC October 2003

TRANSLink suspended operations in November, 2003, here’s their press release from a NPPD page. The bad news in that is that Audrey Ziebelman is now at PJM, helping them take over the transmission world out east. East, i.e., home of the Mid-Atlantic National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor.

Once more with feeling… to look at the TRANSLink docket, go to www.puc.state.mn.us and then to “eDockets” and then “Search Documents” for docket 02-2152.

The MinnCan pipeline case came down yesterday:

A07-1318 – In the Matter of the Application of a Minnesota Pipeline…

It’s one of those with a really long name:

In the Matter of the Application of Minnesota Pipe Line Company for a Certificate of Need for a Crude Oil Pipeline and In the Matter of the Application to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for a Pipeline Routing Permit for a Crude Oil Pipeline and Associated Aboveground Facilities.

Looks to me like this is a case that’s a foreshadowing of CapX, and then there’s Mesaba, Chisago, Big Stone II, Nashwauk. Here are a few choice quotes… sigh…

• However, due-process requirements do not assure an opportunity to intervene as a party, only the opportunity to be heard.
• Relators have not shown that they have sustained or are in danger of sustaining a direct injury as a result of the rule directing notice in CON proceedings because the PUC ordered, and MPL provided, the same notice to landowners in these proceedings as that provided to HVTL landowners pursuant to Minn. R. 7829.2550. Relators’ equal-protection claim is without merit.
• Given the findings by the ALJ regarding the greater economic, environmental, and safety impacts, and given the extent of our deference to the PUC within its area of expertise, the PUC’s decision not to forward the existing pipeline route as a formal alternative for contested-case proceedings was supported by substantial evidence and was not arbitrary or capricious.
• Because the construction of an alternative pipeline was not presented to the PUC, relators’ argument that it failed to consider such an alternative is without merit.
• Relators fail to identify how any additional proof could be presented on the issue of cumulative effects other than MPL’s testimony that it has no plans for future pipeline addition. The PUC’s findings on cumulative effects were therefore not lacking.

Do you sense a circular pattern here? And now what is CapX if not cumulative impacts on top of this pipeline?

We know CapX 2020 isn’t for wind, even Tim Carlsgaard admits that he can’t say that it’s for wind…

Here are a couple of things that arrived in the inbox recently about this, a little light reading for a summer morning.

The first one is from my favorite utility toady, Ed Garvey, “Director and Acting Reliability Administrator” of the Minnesota Office of Energy Security. Garvey is the one who’s been interceding on the Mesaba Project and Big Stone transmission and who knows what else, and if his name is on it, that’s enough to put up my red flags… This one, well here it is:

Potential for and Barriers to State Interconnection Jurisdiction

It starts with a legal analysis, with a lead-in that’s factually incorrect and drawing conclusions about the cause of the MISO backlog of transmission interconnection requests, saying, really, dig this, “… much of which is due to a lack of sufficient existing transmission capability to support the explosion of wind-powered electric generation projects proposed in response to State policies…” Earth to Mars, folks, the backlog is due to the massive amounts of generation in queue and utility and developer desire for bulk power transfer, which is straining the system which is designed, a perfectly adequate system for serving local load and shifting power around during outages. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it is a train headed for Garvey and his absurd proposal — at the very end are the comments of Rick Gonzalez, who, though he’s usually on “the other side,” always tells it like it is:

There is only one power system. To suggest that there can be multiple “on-ramps” within the same geographic area, just at different voltage levels, each with different interconnection procedures, makes little sense… To carry the highway analogy one step further, there is a rather obvious reason why each car has only one steering wheel, and one set of pedals.

… to suggest that circumventing the MISO interconnection process will somehow allow for significant amounts of new generation to be reliably connected sooner, is wishful thinking. The fundamental problem is that we do not have adequate transmission system capability to accommodate most of the proposed or potential new generation, nor do we have agreement on how much capability we should be planning for, or when to implement it.

Making it easier to connect new generation in an essentially unsupervised manner outside of the organized interconnection process will not help; rather, it is an invitation to a “train wreck” type of situation with respect to system reliability, safety, and economy, and also is totally contrary to the chronological queue management concept mandated by FERC…

… In summary, the concept of having some sort of alternative interconnection process certainly has a certain allure to it, given the frustrating situation we’re in (and have created for ourselves with FERC’s help). However, the physical realities of the power system do not yield to legalistic arguments regarding jurisdiction. Since the challenge is primarily a technical one, it is unlikely the solution will be found in the legal field.

Yup, that about sums it up… It seems to me that what’s at issue here is that there’s a lot of coal waiting in queue, enough to gobble up any transmission added, i.e. CapX 2020, and wind is looking for a way to jump ahead of its place in queue. Am I missing something here?

Here’s another report that was in the Google Alerts today:

Optimizing Wind Transmission from Distant Wind Farms

This one I haven’t read yet… but here’s one punch line from p. 3:

Using current estimates of the cost of a wind turbine and the cost of a transmission line, we estimate that the cost of delivered power from a wind farm with about 33% capacity that is locate (sic) 1,000 miles from the customer will be about $150/MWh with almost 2/3 of the cost due to transmission. This cost does not include measures to solve the moment to moment variability of wind turbine output or the intermittency of output.

Seems to me that this is saying that it makes no economic sense to transmit wind over long distances. yeah, tell me something new…

This oh-so-accurate map that shows just what they’re doing is from their SEC Form 8-K, filed April 27, 2007.  Have a look at the whole thing:

xcel-sec8k-4-27-07

Anyway, back to the point… a point… the Public Hearings for Phase I of CapX 2020 have been posted on the PUC website, on the calendar page:

In the Matter of the Xcel Energy and Great River Energy Certificate of Need Application for Three 345 kV Three 345 kV Transmission Lines in Minnesota, Docket ET-2, E-002/CN-06-1115; PUC Staff: Bret Eknes (651-201-2236); ALJ: Beverly Jones Heydinger.

SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS

Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – Horizon Middle School Cafetorium,  3601 12th Ave. So., Moorhead, MN

Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 10:00 a.m. – MN State Community and Technical College, Science Lecture Hall, Room S450, 1414 College Way, Fergus Falls, MN

Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – Alexandria Technical College Auditorium 205, Main Building,
1601 Jefferson Street, Alexandria, MN

Thursday, June 19, 2008, 10:00 a.m. – Melrose Area High School Auditorium, Door 13, 546 North 5th Avenue East, Melrose, MN

Thursday, June 19, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – Clearwater Township Hall, 15015 State Highway 24,
Clearwater, MN

Friday, June 20, 2008, 9:00 a.m. – Clearwater Township Hall, 15015 State Highway 24, Clearwater, MN

Monday, June 23, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – Marshall High School Auditorium, 400 Tiger Drive, Marshall, MN

Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 10:00 a.m. – Marshall High School Auditorium, 400 Tiger Drive, Marshall, MN

Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – Redwood Falls High School Auditorium, 100 George Ramseth Drive, Redwood Falls, MN

Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 10:00 a.m. – Arlington Community Center, Room 2, 204 Shamrock Drive, Arlington, MN

Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 5:00 p.m. – New Prague High School Commons, 221 12th Street NE, New Prague, MN

Thursday, June 26, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – Lakeville South High School Auditorium, 21135 Jacquard Avenue, Lakeville, MN

Monday, June 30, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – Cannon Falls Elementary School, 1020 E. Minnesota Street, Cannon Falls, MN

Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – Tau Conference Center, Winona State University West Campus, 511 Hilbert Street, Winona, MN

Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – John Adams Middle School Auditorium, 1525 31st Street NW, Rochester, MN