Questions for American Transmission Company - Town Of Starl Committee March 24, 2011

Condensed Questions for American Transmission Company [home]

March 24th^-2011 6 pm Meeting – Reception at 5:30

Town of Stark Committee on Energy Planning & Information

Kickapoo Valley Reserve Visitor Center – Highway 131 North of La Farge, WI

A. How much expense would be added to residential and commercial electric bills in Wisconsin if the Badger Coulee line is built? (please state in charges without offsetting cost factors). Can this information become available during the “Applicant’s Public Information Meetings“ stage?

B. Where are the locations of the 140 million dollar lower voltage upgrades that ATC proposes would become unnecessary if the Badger Coulee line was to be built?

C. Is ATC preparing additions to its proposal for the Badger Coulee project that would assure electric customers that the “savings” benefit from wholesale electricity pricing would be actual and not “potential?”

D. Could electric customers in the Study Area or State be required to pay for regional transmission construction projects such as those described in the Regional Generation Outlet Studies (whether designated as “multi-value” or not)?

E. How can an investment in a very expensive, high-capacity transmission system be more cost-effective at meeting modest demand and reliability goals than spending the money on efficiency & control measures that lower overall use?

II. Reliability

A1. Badger-Coulee project has been described as a two line transmission proposal. Would failure to build the Dubuque-Spring Green-Madison portion leave significant reliability concerns in Wisconsin that the Badger Coulee line would not alleviate?

A2. Are there other 345 kV or higher voltage transmission projects under consideration by ATC for western and southwest Wisconsin?

B. Aside from the lines and equipment mentioned under “$140 million in lower voltage upgrades,” are there other transmission lines or equipment with reliability problems in the study area or adjacent areas that ATC feels the Badger Coulee line would not alleviate? Can you provide us these studies?

C. Where are the locations of transmission lines or other equipment with the stability issues on the “regional grid?” Can you provide us these studies?

D. Would the Badger-Coulee and CapX2020 segments of RGOS plan further enable Wisconsin utility companies to both import and export power from and to other States? Would exporting electricity to other States benefit Wisconsin electric customers financially? Can you provide us an outline of how this works?

E. Statistics show that demand in Wisconsin is decreasing. Can ATC include the statistics that ATC has regarding demand in Wisconsin in addition to the statistics the committee previously requested about production, consumption and interstate sales from 2000-2009?

III. Renewable Energy / Reducing Harmful Emissions

A. Would all of the wind-generated power carried in the Badger Coulee and CapX2020 lines be imported from Minnesota? If from renewable power sources within Wisconsin, which ones?

B. Are there other lines in Wisconsin today that carry out of state wind-generated power into Wisconsin? If so, can you provide our committee a list of these lines and the wind generation sources they are connected to?

C. Will other lines to import wind-generated power into Wisconsin be proposed by ATC in the next 5 years? If so, what States would the wind power be imported from?

D. Job creation is a powerful advantage of local energy production and efficiency measures. Money for energy planning is very scarce. How does ATC explain a greater need for a cross-country grid system when jobs and energy can be made in our communities with the same resources that would pay for Badger Coulee?

E. Adding renewable power into a transmission line is beneficial to the environment only if there’s a net reduction in harmful emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. As the Badger-Coulee line would acquire its power from the CapX2020 line, how would the “quality” of the mix of renewable and non-renewable electricity at Holmen be assessed and regulated?

F. Does ATC plan to provide an analysis of how imported renewable resources from “wind alley” translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in savings to electric customers during the Public Information Meetings phase?