Content area
Full Text
A long-proposed 765-kV transmission line in Indiana, caught up in the planning process at the Midwest ISO and the PJM Interconnection LLC, now stands, literally, between 600 miles of 765-kV line that Electric Transmission America proposed to build Nov. 1.
The 240-mile line -- estimated to cost $1 billion and originally proposed to travel from Duke Energy Corp.'s Greentown substation near Kokomo, Ind., southwest to American Electric Power Co. Inc.'s Rockport power plant -- was first announced by the two companies, through their 50/50 joint venture Pioneer Transmission LLC, in August 2008. Since receiving approval for rate incentives from FERC in March 2009, the project has been tied up in rather lengthy planning processes at the Midwest ISO and PJM, AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said Nov. 2.
AEP Transmission President Susan Tomasky acknowledged during a presentation at the Edison Electric Institute's 45th Financial Conference in Palm Desert, Calif., Nov. 2 that the line, meant to relieve congestion and interconnect wind resources, is one that AEP and Duke have "advocated for some time."
"It's something that has been different for the RTOs to deal with because it is on the seam," Tomasky explained.
On Nov. 1, Electric Transmission America announced two new 765-kV transmission projects, also designed to interconnect new energy resources and strengthen the grid, that could help to speed the process along.
ETA, a joint venture between AEP and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. proposed the two projects in three segments. Two of the segments, together called the Reliability Interregional Transmission Extension, or RITE, line, total 420 miles and are separated, but would be connected by the Pioneer line.
The easternmost segment of the RITE line, owned solely by ETA, would run 104 miles from the Ohio-Indiana border to an east-west segment of the Pioneer line. AEP and Duke had initially proposed...