Building a cross-state transmission line Minnkota is busy listening, providing information about Center to Grand Forks project
Building a cross-state transmission line Minnkota is busy listening, providing information about Center to Grand Forks project
Submitted courtesy
Kevin Fee,
Minnkota representative
Building a long-distance, high-voltage transmission line doesn’t happen over night.
It happens over years.
And utilities couldn’t do it without input from landowners in the proposed corridors, who are getting several opportunities to comment before a line is built on the prairie.
Minnkota Power Cooperative is dedicated to providing accurate and timely information regarding the Center to Grand Forks (CGF) transmission line project. A series of public meetings for potentially affected landowners are planned for early spring, the second time Minnkota has held voluntary meetings with the public since it announced the project in April 2009.
Minnkota plans to build a 345-kilovolt (kV) transmission line from Center to Grand Forks. The 260-mile, $300-million line is needed to transmit Milton R. Young 2 output into the northern Red River Valley, improving system reliability and voltage stability.
Minnesota Power has purchased 100 percent ownership of the existing DC line and DC/AC conversion facilities, formerly owned by Square Butte Electric Cooperative, and will use the line to deliver to the Duluth, Minn., area additional wind energy the utility plans to develop near Center.
Minnkota looked at many alternatives for meeting its future baseload energy needs. In the end, the CGF transmission line project was the best fit for both Minnkota, which needed baseload generation, and Minnesota Power, which needed wind energy.
