That’s a lot of alphabet soup, so here it is in English. The American Wind Energy Association and “Wind on the Wires” and a few others have submitted several comments to the DOE and others. It’s old news, years old, but it came up at the hearing. Yesterday, the Walton’s witness, Robert Gramlich of AWEA, couldn’t quite remember what they’d recommended as a corridor. He did remember that they’d proposed a corridor, and defined it as a Midwest Corridor. He was promoting sending wind from the Dakotas to points east, even to the Mid-Atlantic (where he had worked for PJM Interconnection). He did know about Bluewater Wind’s offshore development in Delaware, and of much development in the Mid-Atlantic region in New Jersey, Maryland (and the judge didn’t want to hear about the other areas of the Mid-Atlantic showing strong wind development), admitted that wind development in the Mid-Atlantic would circumvent any claimed transmission constraint between there and the Midwest, and most importantly, that he did not know of any market analysis for selling power from the Midwest in the Mid-Atlantic region. He mentioned Indiana, which, as Crocker pulled out of him, has a lot of wind potential and pending development. Here’s the DOE’s NREL page on Indiana. And regarding Illinois, he didn’t disagree that Illinois had at least 7,000MW in the MISO queue.

It’s important to look at what AWEA-WOW has been doing, because it’s promotional activity of transmission a la CapX, promotional activity that they’d agreed to do in the TRANSLink deal — Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), Izaak Walton League, ME3/Fresh Energy and North American Water Office:

Midwest Wind Development Plan – 2002

Note that this Midwest Wind Development Plan is for transmission and note the “load centers” on the shore of Lake Michigan. Also note that it was prepared by Matt Schuerger, now a contractor with the state, and Beth Soholt, Izaak Walton League. Beth remains on the payroll of the Izaak Walton League – see their IRS 990 — Wind on the Wires is still a subsidiary of the Waltons.

AWEA-WOW et al Congestion Study Comments 10-10-06

AWEA-WOW et al Proposal of Transmission Corridors 12-1-06

AWEA-WOW et al Proposed 1221 Corridors Comment

AWEA-WOW et al Proposed 1221 Corridor Maps

Take a look at the Maps. For over six years now, they’ve been advocating for transmission a la CapX 2020 from the Dakotas to load centers near the Great Lakes. Who cares? Well…

1. It’s not for Minnesota – we’re a pass through on the way to Chicago and beyond.
2. There’s been no market analysis – why would anyone in Illinois buy wind and pay capital and service costs of transmission when they have a lot of wind development there?
3. It’s not efficient – the SW Minnesota 345kV line turned on line losses. What’s being proposed is … what… 5 times longer… lots more??? How far away is the Mid-Atlantic region? Once more with feeling: LINE LOSSES!