New Tourist Attraction Planned For Northern Minnesota's Boundary Waters -- August 23, 2016

Regular readers will remember this story (I've re-posted it below the "jump").

Don sends me an update from today's StarTribune. Some data points:

• Great North Transmission Line
• $560 million to $710 million
• three years to build
• one of several that will cross the US-Canadian border
• will help address the intermittent nature of wind power for the majority owner, Duluth-based Minnesota Power
• with wind power on the increase, stable sources of electricity like hydro are needed to fill in production gaps
• Manitoba Hydro is a partner with Great Northern  
• earlier this year, Minnesota regulators approved a new route
• 225-mile-long high-voltage line
• will cross five northern counties through pristine 10,000 border lakes

Local note from International Falls:

The power line, announced publicly in February 2012, is a proposed 500 kV single-circuit transmission line, which will run approximately 220 miles depending on the final route selection. The line will be capable of transmitting at least 883 MW of clean, flexible hydropower and is a part of Minnesota Power’s Energy Forward initiative.

Minnesota Power would pay property taxes on the line, and payments would begin in 2018, with the full amount coming in 2021. The company is expecting to pay $40,000-$70,000 per mile annually on the line.

About $11 million / year "mailbox money" for this transmission line will be paid by the utility rate payers. 

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 Original Post

This was the original post back in May, 2015 (link here).

SeeNews Renewables is reporting:

Minnesota Power has secured a key approval for its plan to build a 500-kV transmission line that will facilitate the delivery of renewable and carbon-free hydropower from the Canadian province of Manitoba to the US state of Minnesota.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has cleared a request for a Certificate of Need for the Great Northern transmission line, according to Allete Inc.

The transmission project will require an investment of [about $750 million]. Minnesota Power will own a majority stake in the system, which will help it deliver at least 383 MW of energy to its clients by June 1, 2020 under power purchase agreements with Manitoba Hydro.

The planned transmission system will allow Minnesota Power to use Manitoba Hydro’s hydroelectric system to store electricity generated by the Bison wind power center in North Dakota. The company commissioned the 205-MW fourth phase of the particular wind project in January 2015, bringing the complex’s total capacity to nearly 500 MW.

As I wrote the reader who sent me the link:

This is really quite a story, thank you.

It is amazing how fast the Minnesota PUC can approve any project with the phrase "renewable energy" in it.

It's interesting that the transmission line is needed to provide back up power for the wind farm in North Dakota. If I read this correctly (and I know I am), Allete has a wind farm in North Dakota. We all know that a) wind doesn't blow at the right speeds all the time; b) the wind farm has a limited life span; and, c) one can't economically store electricity yet. So, the utility needed a back-up plan -- electricity from another source.

So, now, environmentalists can cut the ribbon on a new huge transmission line that will cut through the pristine land of 10,000 lakes.

Wind turbines are depreciated over 7 years; turbines have an expected lifespan of less than 12 years. It appears that the wind farm in North Dakota was used as a cover to get a 500-kV transmission line approved, something that would not have happened had it been for a coal plant out of South Dakota. I hate wind power, but when used as a cover for a huge transmission line, one can't but feel a bit of freudenshade for the Minnesotans.

Meanwhile, a pipeline that no one will see once it is buried, is sandbagged by "environmental groups."

Meanwhile, by law, the utility will be allowed to pass on costs of this new (unneeded) transmission line to its customers. All things being equal, electricity bills will increase in Minnesota once this transmission line is given the final go-ahead.

The likely route for this billion-dollar transmission line, simply required to back up a wind farm in North Dakota: