Power Line approval
advances wind development
by
Kevon Storie
The Minnesota Public Utility Commission recently granted a certificate of need to Xcel Energy, to construct new Power Lines from Buffalo Ridge to metropolitan St. Paul-Minneapolis, and in the process gave a big boost to wind development.
The boost came from conditions the PUC attached to the approval which aimed to increase the amount of wind power available for transmission over the line. Xcel proposed the four Power Lines specifically to provide outlet capacity for the wind generating facilities in southwest Minnesota. The area transmission system needs the improvements to handle the additional 400 MW of wind capacity that Minnesota's Renewable Energy Mandate requires Xcel to develop by 2012.
Turbines to be built at same time as Power Lines
"There was no question that the new lines were needed," said Beth Soholt, director of Wind on the Wire. "The conditions will enable Xcel to step up their wind purchases and put them in the position to capture more of the wind potential."
Wind on the Wires crafted the conditions
advocated by the Izaak Walton
League of America, Minnesotans
for an Energy Efficient Economy
and the American Wind Energy
Association. The Minnesota
Department of Commerce also supported the conditions.
One
of the conditions Soholt referred to requires that a total of
825 MW of wind power must be built in the same timeframe as
the line, which is projected to be in service by 2006. The decision
will result in about 365 megawatts of additional wind power—between
300 and 400 utility-sized turbines—being built over the
next three years. The added capacity will be capable of providing
the annual energy needs of more than 150,000 Minnesota homes.
Xcel currently has 460 megawatts of wind power installed or under contract. Under Minnesota law, wind energy resources greater than 12 MW must be acquired through a competitive bidding process based on least cost. "Many developers, both large wind farms and smaller projects, are eager to provide Xcel with wind power," Soholt observed.
Small wind developers get good news
A separate condition supported by the Rural Minnesota Energy Task Force and the North American Water Office gave further encouragement to small wind concerns. Included in the 825-MW standard, Xcel must purchase 60 MW of locally developed wind at the small wind tariff rate.
That was good news for struggling farmers, communities and small businesses in southwestern Minnesota. Although small wind projects currently make up no more than 30 MW of the state's wind power, communities are increasingly seeing wind as an opportunity for economic development.
"Those early projects were as valuable for business models as they were for the energy they produced," Soholt admitted. "Now, utilities are getting a better understanding of how to integrate local generation into their portfolios and banks are becoming more familiar with financing the deals. It's been a steep learning curve for everyone involved, but it's starting to pay off."
While
the provision encourages rural wind development, its purpose
was to trigger the infrastructure improvements to transmit the
energy. Xcel will build the Fenton and Yankee substations on
Buffalo Ridge as soon as 30 MW or more of viable, locally-owned
wind generators are aggregated per substation. Municipal utilities,
school districts and businesses like Minwind
I and II are expected to build most of those turbines.
With
renewable energy—and especially wind—transmission
continues to be the bottleneck. Infrastructure changes are often
necessary to get the energy efficiently from the generators
to far away load centers. Under the PUC's ruling, Xcel's necessity
has turned into an oppportunity to develop Minnesota's renewable
resources.
