Guestatorial: The crooked line

Unless you comment by Friday, your electric rates may go up!

MISO ratepayers may pay for a 345-kV transmission line in Wisconsin. If your utility company is within the MISO footprint, your rates may go up for the next 40 years and you may not even find the hidden fees in your monthly bill.

Let’s start from the beginning. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) control a large part of the power grid operations across North America and Canada. MISO South is a new area that includes parts of Arkansas, but not all details are known.

Regional transmission operators are the traffic controllers of the electric grid, deciding where power flows across the grid, like airline control towers. MISO and SPP tell their utility members when to build transmission lines.

Cardinal Hickory Creek (CHC)

The 125-mile $600 million Wisconsin transmission line, with 170-ft. high steel towers, is an extension of the 345-kV Badger-Coulee transmission line, opposed by 99 percent of the local community.

What is a Multi Value Project?

Multi value projects (MVP) are a sneaky way to get public service commission approval and minimum public comments. Scams, swindles, rip-offs, and other names are heard when talking about MVPs. MISO claims the CHC transmission line in Wisconsin would benefit every ratepayer in their footprint, from Canada to Texas, and the total cost would be shared. Wisconsin would only pay about 10%. MISO South controls the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives and Entergy Arkansas, over 80 percent of Arkansas customers.

This sounds weird, let me try again. If you have a large family, get the best meal in town by yourself. Then, tell your wife and kids everyone in the family benefits, and they will eat bologna sandwiches for two months. Your $350 meal qualifies as an MVP if you say so.

The total cost of the $600 million project is $3 billion

Over 40 years, the total cost of the project including the costs of financing, operation, and removal of the line, is $2 to $3 billion. The risk is all on the ratepayers, not one shareholder is at risk. Please read details in “Conservative reasons to oppose a proposed high-voltage transmission line in Wisconsin,” a 2018 article on the lifecycle cost of CHC.

Cinder block technology

The U.S. power grid is not resilient, and it was not designed to survive extreme weather events, with overhead powerlines, and outdoor equipment. The grid grew one transmission line at a time, connecting bulk, remote coal-fired power plants to sub-stations, and power lines with wooden poles and transformers connecting homes and businesses. When it rains it pours! Arkansas’ rains go on for days and rivers flood. Arkansas utilities need to upgrade the rural powerlines and build flood proof barriers around the sub-stations to protect power-switch gear, power transformers and all the gear behind the chain link fence.

How can we ignore the recent floods?

The Department of Defense says the climate disruption is a National Security Risk. Why doesn’t our Governor and Congressional Delegation? Arkansas has one of the highest inland flooding threats in the country with approximately 210,000 people at high risk of flooding. Please see www.statesatrisk.org

Call for action

Please request the WI PSC deny the transmission line, by Friday, June 28. Here is the comment I sent with this link: www.bit.ly/CHC_ePortal         

Dear Commissioners,

1. A) Why would MISO ratepayers pay for the Cardinal Hickory Creek Wisconsin – Iowa project?
2. B) Why were MISO ratepayers not given timely notice and the opportunity to comment before the PSC?
3. C) Every cent I pay for transmission lines keeps me from making energy-efficient improvements and installing community solar systems to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions and prevent power outages.
4. D) I oppose the 345-kV Cardinal Hickory Creek transmission line and support Non-Transmission Alternatives.

By hook or by crook

Taking people’s land and building unnecessary transmission lines is done by any means possible, one way or another. Having the majority of the cost met by out-of-state ratepayers unaware of the projects is a crooked line.

Dr. Luis Contreras