Dive Brief:
- Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) has proposed a 220 mile transmission line across the environmentally sensitive Sandhills in central Nebraska.
- NPPD and wind advocates say the new line would strengthen the region’s electric transmission network and allow more wind development.
- Environmentalists in the SaveOurSandhills group believe the construction would disturb the integrity of the region but Bold Nebraska, a firm opponent of the Sandhills branch of the Keystone XL pipeline, supports it.
Dive Insight:
The proposed 345 kilovolt transmission line would start at NPPD’s Gerald Gentleman coal power plant and go north to a new substation and then turn east and connect to another new substation.
Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a regional electricity transmission group of which NPPD is a participant, would pay 93% of the $328 million project's cost and NPPD would pay the 7% balance.
Through the SPP interconnection, Nebraska could use the new line to export electricity, a potentially lucrative opportunity for the state because its wind resource has far greater electricity production potential than the largely rural population consumes.
