By Dan Piller in the Des Moines Register
A MidAmerican Energy-commissioned study shows that a proposed high-voltage transmission line to carry wind energy would bring far more electricity through Iowa than the state would use.
The study by Quanta Technology of Raleigh, N.C., unveiled Thursday, showed that if Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Minnesota fully develop their wind energy, the transmission line might expand Iowa’s electricity system to 23,000 megawatts – more than double Iowa’s current 11,000 megawatts of electricity-generating capacity.
After the theoretical wind transmission line crosses the Mississippi River, the heavy demands from Chicago and the rest of Illinois would take 10,000 megawatts off the line, and more would come off as the line proceeds east into Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
MidAmerican, which is headquartered in Des Moines, already has 1,350 megawatts of wind-generating capacity in Iowa. The transmission line would be a crucial next step toward owner Warren Buffett’s goal of making MidAmerican a major force in wind energy.
The line could add to the utility’s surplus of electricity, which it sells to other utilities. MidAmerican has said such sales keep rates flat for Iowa customers.
MidAmerican and its joint venture partner, American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio, hired Quanta to study a possible 765-kilovolt transmission line that would be more than double the 345-kilovolt lines that are now the largest in Iowa.
The big new line would traverse the wind-rich Great Plains west of the Mississippi River into the more populous East.
In September, MidAmerican joined the Midwest Independent System Operators (MISO), the consortium of generators and utilities that operates the electricity grid from Minnesota and the Dakotas to eastern Ohio. Last week, MidAmerican won approval from the Iowa Utilities Board to add another 1,001 megawatts of electricity to its Iowa wind-generating network.
MidAmerican President William Fehrman opened a meeting in West Des Moines on Thursday by saying the Quanta study was “amazingly important for our region.”
President Barack Obama mentioned such a transmission line in his speech in April at the Trinity Industries wind tower factory in Newton.
“These days, it is well understood that tapping the nation’s abundant wind resources will require a robust transmission grid – one that is much more robust than our fathers’ system that we have today,” said Susan Tierney, an energy consultant in Boston and former assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Energy.
MidAmerican isn’t the only player in the multistate transmission line game. Iowa, with more than 3,000 megawatts of wind-energy capacity in place, is considered to be the logical hub for new transmission systems.
ITC Midwest Holdings of Michigan, which owns and operates Alliant Energy’s transmission system in Iowa, already has received nonexclusive approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a line stretching from the Dakotas into Illinois.
Other proposals, including one to run along railroad rights of way, have been discussed.
Through the development of the electricity grid in the 20th century, utilities built transmission lines to serve local needs. Just a handful of 345-kilovolt lines move across state borders.
Experts have likened a new multistate transmission line to the building of the interstate highway system beginning in the late 1950s.
Thomas Gentile of Quanta, who presented the first report to the meeting Thursday, stressed that the early numbers aren’t a specific plan and are not ready to go to the bank or to federal or state regulators.
“We are gathering information and we want and need input from those in the affected territories,” Gentile said.
Quanta will come back with a second report Dec. 3 with more technical details. Economic questions, including the sticky issue of who will pay for the estimated $12 billion to $15 billion line, remain to be ironed out.
“Ultimately, any project will involve MISO,” said Brian Weber, vice president of the MidAmerican/AEP joint venture, which is known as Electric Transmission America LLC.
Dean Crist, MidAmerican’s vice president for regulatory affairs, said the next step for the transmission venture would be to apply for approval to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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