Proposed High Voltage Transmission Line Files w/ICC
Published on July 29 2022 8:08 am
Last Updated on July 29 2022 8:08 am
Written by Greg Sapp
BY TIMOTHY EGGERT FarmWeek
A Chicago-based company formally asked state regulators July 26 to move forward on building an 800-mile transmission line that would carry renewable energy generated in Kansas across Missouri and end at the Illinois-Indiana border.
Invenergy LLC filed its application with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to construct and operate the Grain Belt Express Transmission Line, a 600 kilovolt (kV) high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) electric service transmission line.
The 93-page filing, which includes a detailed description of the $7 billion project, its route and its timeline, is the initial step toward gaining approval from the state. The ICC has yet to schedule a prehearing to consider the filing.
“IFB will intervene in the ICC case just as we did when this project began in 2014,” Illinois Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert Jr. said. “Back then, an appellate court agreed with IFB that Grain Belt Express was not a public utility, and it did not begin.”
“IFB previously conducted landowner education meetings for our members along the proposed route. The meetings helped our members understand how to work through the approval and easement negotiation process to protect their property,” Guebert said. “We will continue to provide information to our members as the process continues.”
According to the petition, the company entered into an Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreement (AIMA) with the Illinois Department of Agriculture in July.
Under the terms of that AIMA, Invenergy said it will “take appropriate steps to prevent adverse impacts to agricultural lands, including steps to prevent or mitigate soil erosion, soil compaction, damage to or interference with drainage tiles, and interference with irrigation systems, and to remediate such impacts should they occur.”
The decade-old project, which Invenergy acquired in 2018, already has approval from regulators in Kansas, Missouri and Indiana.
According to the filing, the transmission line is capable of providing 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity generated by wind turbines and solar fields in southwest Kansas to utility providers across the four states.
Specifically, the project would deliver up to 2,500 MW of power into the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and the Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. grids at a delivery point in Missouri, and up to 2,500 MW of power into the PJM Interconnection LLC grid at a delivery point in Indiana.