Stringing Transmission Lines, Untangling Red Tape

 

Centralized federal oversight sounds good, but what about squabbles between separate federal agencies?

Some cite California's notorious "Path 15" as an example of how transmission bottlenecks can stifle electricity competition, but the problem extends beyond the West Coast. In reality, TLR events (transmission loading relief) rose significantly across the country in 2000, compared to the previous three years. ()

In the upper Midwest, Wisconsin Governor Scott McCallum released a report in June that underscored his state's unique electricity geography and its vulnerability to a weak transmission infrastructure. As explained in the report (), the state resembles an isolated transmission "peninsula," as it is nestled between two Great Lakes. It also straddles the dividing line between two regional reliability regions, the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool (MAPP) and the Mid-Area Interconnected Network (MAIN), that are linked only by one major line. So Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Minnesota Power Inc. have been at work to link the two regions with a new line.

Further to the east, American Electric Power (AEP) has spent a decade trying to certify a new a 765-kilovolt (kV) line to link southern West Virginia with southwestern Virginia. That project finally won approval last May from the Virginia State Corporation Commission. And in California, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the state's Independent System Operator (ISO) have set 2004 as a target date for completion of upgrades to Path 15.