Dive Brief:
- A group of transmission-owning utilities in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin have completed most of the CapX2020 project, more than 700 miles of transmission line connecting wind generation with customers seeking clean energy, Wisconsin Public Radio reports.
- The partners, led by Xcel Energy, this week celebrated completion of the Hampton-Rochester-LaCrosse transmission lines, a new 156-mile link helping connect customers in Wisconsin with Montana wind farms.
- A fifth project in eastern South Dakota is scheduled for completion in 2017, the group said.
Dive Insight:
The CapX2020 project—"Capacity Expansion Needed by 2020"—was formed more than a decade ago, in response to 1999’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 2000. Supporters pointed to how the collaboration involved in the construction process could be a model of the future.
The proposal was controversial in parts of Wisconsin, but advocates said if the state wants more clean energy it will need to deal with power lines. "More transmission equals more clean energy development. It's really as simple as that," Wind on the Wires' regional policy manager Chris Kunkle told Wisconsin Public Radio.
Kunkle also, in a statement announcing the project, said it would help give customers access to least-cost resources for decades.
By 2020, Xcel will eed to meet 30% of its energy needs with renewables, a mandate from Minnesota that helped spur development of the line. The recently-completed segment is jointly owned by Xcel, Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Rochester Public Utilities and WPPI Energy.
“This line makes it feasible for WPPI Energy to buy more renewable energy for the customers of our member municipal electric utilities,” said WPPI Vice President Tim Noeldner.
