It’s official!  Here are the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Orders in the ITC Midwest MN/IA 345 kV Transmission Project case for their Certificate of Need and Route Permit — hot off the press:

Order_Certificate of Need_201411-104931-01

Order_Route Permit_14-0120_12-1337

Today the clock starts ticking.  If there’s anything that you, an “affected party” take issue with and want the Commission to reconsider, there is a 20 day window to file a Motion for Reconsideration.  That means you need to file it by December 15, 2014.

Not only is this relevant to the ITC docket, but as the first of the MISO MVP projects to come down the pike, it’s also relevant to the Badger Coulee docket now ongoing in Wisconsin (GO HERE and search for PSC Docket 05-CE-142) as the first MVP project in Wisconsin.

Here’s the short version of the Certificate of Need Order:

Here are some issues for No CapX 2020 — this is the Commission’s interpretation — from the Certificate of Need Order:

So there ya have it!  Monday December 15, 2014 is the deadline for Motions for Reconsideration.

CapX 2020 in the news… see below.

REMEMBER — IF YOU ARE SERVED WITH PETITION FOR CONDEMNATION, YOU HAVE ONLY 60 DAYS TO FILE YOUR REQUEST FOR “BUY THE FARM.”

And in Wisconsin — public hearings on Badger Coulee, La Crosse to Madison, start the week after next:

Condemnations start along CapX2020 powerline route

Posted: Friday, November 21, 2014 7:50 pm

Jeff Kiger, jkiger@postbulletin.com

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Icy water, eagles factor into CapX2020 river crossing

 

 Posted: Friday, November 21, 2014 11:12 pm

Heather J. Carlson, hcarlson@postbulletin.com

ALMA, Wis. — On a blustery November morning on an island in the Mississippi River, a construction crew was hard at work using a massive crane and welding equipment to tear down a 70-foot-tall section of lattice tower.

It was all part of a $30 million effort to string the new CapX2020 transmission lines across the Mississippi River near Alma. The project is a daunting one, requiring the use of barges to transport 3,280 cubic yards of concrete, a 250-ton crane and 6 miles of steel pipe to an island and a peninsula in the river being used for the river crossing. Making that work even more difficult has been the earlier-than-normal cold weather.

“It’s been cold. We’ve been fighting with the ice, so we’re looking to get done in the next couple of weeks,” Zach Pontzer said on Friday morning.

Pontzer is the project manager for J.F. Brennan Co. of La Crosse, Wis., which is in charge of building the foundations for the structures, along with operating the cranes and barges. The project involves building a new 345-kilovolt transmission line adjacent to an existing Dairyland Power Cooperative 161/69 kilovolt line built in 1955. The double circuit line will be replaced with a triple circuit transmission line.

CapX2020 is a joint initiative of 11 utilities in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin to upgrade and expand the electric transmission grid. The total project costs more than $2 billion and stretches nearly 800 miles. Construction of the Hampton-Rochester-La Crosse section is expected to be completed in 2015.

For the river crossing, five 187-foot-tall structures are being built, requiring 15 pile-cap foundations. Those foundations are comprised of 362 16-inch steel pipe piles, with some driven into the soil as deep as 130 feet, according to Xcel Energy. A helicopter will be used to string the transmission lines across the river.

Also adding to the challenge is a shortage of concrete. Pontzer said his company was able to work with Wabasha Sand-Gravel-Ready-Mix to make sure that the project was given high priority for concrete because of the limited time before the river freezes.

In addition to these obstacles, construction crews also have to be keeping a close eye out for eagles. There are two eagles nests in the area and one of them is active. Xcel Energy spokesman Tim Carlsgaard said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service require all work on the project to stop as soon as the eagles return. That could happen in early January.

“This is just one of the many challenges of this river crossing,” Carlsgaard said.

Still, despite all of the challenges, the massive project is moving ahead on schedule. Pontzer said his company hopes to wrap up its work within two to three weeks. The goal is to have the river crossing completed by February.

—

CapX2020 river crossing basics

Cost of Mississippi River crossing: $30 million

Estimated crossing length: 1.3 miles

Needed materials: 5 miles of steel pipe pile, 3,280 cubic yards of concrete

Getting from here to there: Requires 150 loads of concrete to be delivered to island and peninsula via barges

Finished product: Will involve a total of five 187-foot-tall structures to hold transmission lines and 15 pile cap foundations. Those foundations are strengthened with 262 16-inch diameter pipe piles with some driven down 130-feet deep into the soil. A helicopter will help string the lines.

 

The PSC has issued the Notice of Hearing for the Badger Coulee transmission project.  Dates, times, locations below.  Because there’s something even more important — look at the restrictions for those who want to comment:

There’s nothing in the docket of anyone, objecting to this.  WAKE UP!!!  Parties representing “the public” better stand up!

Here’s even more limitations, setting out the ways people can comment, and that a person may make only ONE comment:

And this too:

Now ain’t that encouraging?  Doesn’t that make you want to run right out and comment?

But remember, there is the option of writing a “Non-Party Brief” as described in the Prehearing Memorandum — see p. 9:

Prehearing Memorandum_Scheduling

Here’s the ALJ’s acknowledgement of that option, and how to do it, from the Prehearing Conference back in August (FYI, it’s Motion for Leave to file a non-party brief, not “relief”):

Here’s the Public Hearing schedule — you’ve got a month to get ready:

When you make your public comment, be sure to let Judge Newmark know what you think of all these restrictions.

There’s the Forbes article about American Wind Energy Ass (AWEA) advocating for this massive mess of new 765 kV lines.

Experts: Reducing Carbon Emissions and Increasing Grid Reliability are Doable

Experts?  Ummmm, AWEA?  No, they are NOT transmission experts, they are only expert in doing what their masters pay them to do.  Here’s their “vision” from a couple of years ago:

Green Power Superhighways

Report – Update to the Superhighways report that AWEA’s Michael Goggin wrote in fall 2013.

In Minnesota, there’s one paralleling the CapX 2020 line, then another cutting the state in two from Big Stone to the Metro, and another from Split Rock to Adams along I-90.  Who the hell do they think they are to advocate for this overkill of transmission?  And note that in the Dakotas, as always, they start at the big coal plants.  Infrastructure like this is the best way to assure coal never shuts down, adding capacity instead of shutting coal down and using that capacity.  And if they do it this way, then they can run our coal plants forever.  Oh, right… this is the plan AEP supports.

First and foremost, remember that this is about economics — money and profit from building transmission and providing transmission service — the grid IS electrically reliable, so says NERC in its latest State of Reliability 2013 Report:

And here’s the NERC Report (one should be due out soon, used to be October, but they’ve pushed it back):

2013 NERC Reliability Assessment

What strikes me is that so many are willing to believe that the electric grid is not “reliable” and are willing to attribute economic issues like “congestion” to claims that the system is not reliable.  And then there’s their successful effort to shift cost allocation so that the generators no longer pay for transmission necessary to access and safely operate the grid.  In the past, generators paid, but then in the gas plant surge over a decade ago, so many were built without transmission upgrades that we were in transmission deficit, evidenced in the 2001-2004 SW MN 345 kV Four Certificates of Need (MN PUC Docket 01-1958).  Check this TLTG Table, click for a larger version:

For their 1-H option, the one that the enviros agreed to in this project, acquiesced to (remember, this was the project where they got a group together and asked “What would it take to support this project?”), the system starts out with a 1475 MW deficit.  It’s not until they’ve fixed some long standing problems, such as the sagging Wilmarth line, and the FT. CALHOUN INTERFACE which is in the base case (!!!!), and after spending over $138 million including their wide ranging “base case” of necessary fixes, that they start actually adding some system capacity.  DOH!  Give me a break…

The real problem is failure to make those added generators pay for fixing the system impacts, and then the desire to add wind projects without making them pay for system impacts, and more importantly, of wanting to add wind on top of the existing coal generation, without removing the coal which would make plenty of room for wind.  The price of their wanting to “find a way forward for coal.”

American Wind Energy Ass, how dare you.  This one’s for you:

From AWEA’s 2012 IRS 990 (the most recent one on Guidestar), p. 25 and 29, they’re getting paid a lot:

AWEA_2012_IRS990