'Green Power Express' could come to area

(Graphic courtesy ITC Holdings Corp.) ITC company officials released a conceptual map of the Green Power Express, a network of transmission lines designed to capture wind energy.

The Spencer, Storm Lake and Iowa Great Lakes areas could be in line to land a segment of a $10- to $12 billion network of wind energy transmission lines, according to officials at Michigan-based ITC Holdings Corp.

The company on Monday announced plans to develop what it calls the "Green Power Express." The network of transmission lines would capture power from wind turbines in the Upper Midwest and carry them to load centers in places like Chicago, Minneapolis and southeast Wisconsin.

"The Green Power Express will create the much-needed link between the renewable energy-rich regions of the Midwest and high-demand population centers," said ITC president and CEO Joseph Welch in the company's announcement. The company called the Green Power Express a step in ITC's broader efforts to modernize the overburdened, aging electricity grid.

The project will traverse portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana and will ultimately include approximately 3,000 miles of extra high-voltage, or 765kV, transmission.

Site location in northwest Iowa is important because nearby transmission lines could attract wind farms and wind component manufacturers to the area.

"This is obviously many years out yet, but certainly the process of constructing transmission lines requires construction crews, the purchasing of materials and a purchasing of easements from landowners," said Tom Petersen, the communications director for ITC Midwest, an ITC subsidiary. "So certainly there's a potential for economic benefit, but the greater piece, of course, is to encourage wind development in the areas where the line connects to, or is adjacent to. That's probably where the biggest economic benefit would be for the state and the region as a whole."

The area is a potential site for a portion of the Green Power Express because of an existing substation near Lakefield, Minn. ITC Holdings Corp. may want to connect the substation to large wind farms near Storm Lake as part of a wind energy grid.

"What we announced (Monday) was basically a conceptual map -- here's a rough idea of how that plan could come together," Petersen said.

The map includes substations that could be incorporated into the plan, but "at this point, there's not a clear definition of what that actual route would be or where that line would go. It's still a little early for that."

ITC Holdings officials are working closely with the governors of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, who form the Upper Midwest Transmission Development Initiative.

In addition, the company is talking with wind developers to determine their needs. The Iowa Utilities Board also would have to grant ITC franchising rights for the company to build the Green Power Express in each of the counties it would cross.

"We would conduct a line route study, where we would look at specific features of the land," Petersen said. "There are things that we would obviously have to avoid -- like major metro areas, environmentally sensitive areas, and those kinds of things. Then we would come up with a proposed route. Then we would hold public meetings in the communities to identify what that route is ... Generally when you're siting transmission lines, you'll want to find ways to have the least impact on the local features, so public right-of-ways are always an option. Section lines for land are other options."

The Green Power Express may result in a reduction of up to 34 million metric tons of carbon emissions, according to a statement from ITC. The amount is equivalent to the annual emissions of about eight, 600-MW coal plants, or about 10 million automobiles.