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September 24, 2008
Colorado, Surrounding States Build Transmission
for Wind Energy
During the last month, announcements about
growth in transmission capacity for wind energy came in from across
the region:
Colorado receives DOE funding to build transmission to
Renewable Zones
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that
Colorado was among
15 states to receive competitive state energy grants in 2008. The
Colorado grant from DOE is worth $398,000 and will be administered
by the Governor's Energy Office (GEO). GEO will use the grant to
develop a technical and financial plan to build and connect to the
grid 1,000 MW of electric power capacity from renewable energy. GEO
will use its January 2008 report titled Connecting Colorado's
Renewable Energy Resources to the Markets as a point of departure
for this work.
http://www.colorado.gov/energy/in/uploaded_pdf/
SB91TaskForceReport.pdf
In the report, GEO identifies several zones
of high wind and solar energy potential. At the CRES 2008 Conference
in June, GEO staff outlined how the City of Pueblo is important to
transmission planning related to renewable energy development in
Colorado. The city is situated close to a large zone of wind energy
potential to the east of the city and a zone of large solar energy
potential to the south. In addition, the city has major transmission
capacity connecting it with the rest of the Colorado Front Range
because of the two major coal-fired power plants situated there.
For more information about the DOE grant,
see the Colorado Governor's Energy Office September 10 press
release.
http://www.colorado.gov/energy/in/uploaded_pdf/
080911TransmissionGrant.pdf
Wind developers acquire capacity on new
transmission line linking Wyoming and Colorado
In late August, two wind developers acquired 70% of the capacity of
a new transmission line that would connect windy areas on the
eastern Plains of Wyoming with population centers in northern
Colorado. The project is called the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie
Project, and will build 850 megawatts (MW) of transmission capacity
beginning in 2013. Wyoming ranks seventh among states with wind
energy potential, according to AWEA.
For more information about the project, see a
news article published by the U.S. Department of Energy on September
2.
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/states/
state_news_detail.cfm/news_id=11963
Oklahoma to build transmission line to
the capital
On September 11, the Oklahoma Corporation
Commission approved a plan submitted by Oklahoma Gas and Electric
Company to build a transmission line from the northeast corner of
the state to Oklahoma City. The 110-mile line will connect the
capital with two wind power plants near Woodward and allow wind
capacity to expand in that area. Oklahoma has considerable wind
energy resources and ranks eighth among states with wind energy
potential, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
Colorado ranks 11th. See the commission's announcement:
http://www.occ.state.ok.us/Divisions/NEWS/2008/
September2008/09-11-08A%20CHANGE%20IN%20THE%20WIND.pdf
Nebraska public utilities move to join
the Southwest Power Pool
The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Board of Directors took an unusual
step early this month by considering a request from three public
utilities in Nebraska to join. The SPP administers power to more
than 4.5 million customers in a seven-state region south of
Nebraska.
In a special board meeting in Kansas City,
Nebraska Public Power District, Omaha Public Power District, and the
Lincoln Electric System applied to join the SPP in order to be able
to connect wind power plants in their service territories to
population centers to the south.
Although Nebraska has large wind resources and
ranks sixth among states with wind energy potential, its
population—1.7 million—is relatively small and therefore does not
constitute a large market. By joining SPP, the three utilities would
be able to export wind generated electricity to markets outside of
the state.
For more information, see a September 8 news
article written and distributed by Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/
rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN0846654520080808
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