ATC’s Construction Meeting and “Economic Planning”
American Transmission Company (ATC) is holding a “Construction Meeting” about the Badger Coulee transmission project on April 14, an open house from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Town of Springfield Town Hall, 6157 County Highway P, Dane County, Wisconsin.
ATC is also holding a round or two of planning meetings, and the next “Customer and Stakeholder” Meeting is planned for April 19, 2016, from 1-3 p.m. at ATC HQ in Pewaukee.
What’s important about this is that in addition to the annual “10 Year Assessment,” they’re also doing “Economic Planning.”
What goes on at these ATC “stakeholder” meetings?
Here are materials for that 2-24-2016 meeting:
ATC 2015 Assessment Summary Presentation
2016 Assessment Preliminary Study Design
Here’s ATC’s Annual Report:Â ATC releases 2015 Annual Report
They have an entire page on “Economic Planning” and the entire notion of “Economic Planning” goes to the private purpose of transmission, moving bulk power for profit. That’s very different than the regulated utilities’ need to supply their native (captive) load with electricity. The wholesale market was deregulated, electricity is now on economic dispatch, and the basis of electric generation, transmission, distribution, and use, is fundamentally changed. As a society, we’ve not yet grasped this concept, and what it means to us as ratepayers, landowners, and humans.
In light of this, Comments made at a recent Transmission Confab and captured by RTO Insider are enlightening (though note the questioning is from Allohina, a witness and proponent in the CapX 2020 buildout, it’s questionable, because they’ve already got their project!):
Economic benefits have been sketchy at best for some projects, and so grossly overstated as to be hilarious in others, where it’s clear that the benefits go to the generators as decreased production costs:
As above, ATC is hosting another “Customer and Stakeholder” Meeting on April 19, 2016, from 1-3 p.m. The ATC page says it’s at ATC HQ in Pewaukee, WI, but ATC HQ address is not listed on the ATC site, and there are two ATC offices on Ridgeview Parkway, close, but which? Message sent, will report back.
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