Wisconsin better beef up power grid, industry says
11:24 PM 8/14/03
Jennifer Sereno Business editor

Wisconsin's aging power grid needs a major upgrade to keep the lights on in coming years, system officials said Thursday, with an investment of more than $135 million needed in Dane County alone.

Annemarie Newman, a spokeswoman for American Transmission Co., which operates much of the state's high voltage transmission system, said the company's local plans call for spending $85 million to improve substations, boost the capacity of existing lines and string new ones over the next five years. Meanwhile, American Transmission anticipates the need to build a 345-kilovolt line in Dane County that is expected to cost another $50 million within eight years.

"Dane County imports 85 percent of the power it uses from outside the county, so it is heavily dependent on the transmission system," Newman said. With power use growing at 3 percent per year, the system needs "significant reinforcements in the future to keep the lights on."

Statewide, the system also needs improvement, utility officials said.

The state Public Service Commission has scheduled hearings for September on the proposed $410 million Arrowhead-Weston high voltage line that would run from Duluth, Minn., to the Wausau area. The line, which could be constructed within five years if approved this fall, would relieve pressure on a line between Arpin and Eau Claire - one of the most heavily strained in the country.

"It's imperative that we get to work to continue these projects to build more reliability," said Steve Kraus, a spokesman for Madison Gas and Electric Co. "We've realized for some time that additional capacity is needed."

Reinforcements also are needed in the southwestern portion of the state, American Transmission's Newman said. Wisconsin has just four major transmission lines coming into the state.

Beyond the need for transmission improvements, state utility officials also are seeking to boost generation capacity. Madison Gas and Electric Co. is seeking permission to build a $180 million, 150-megawatt power plant on the UW-Madison campus, while Wisconsin Energy Corp. of Milwaukee has embarked on plans to add $3 billion worth of additional generation capacity through 2011.

Despite Thursday's high temperature of 85 in Madison, power use in the central and eastern portions of the state served by American Transmission peaked at roughly 10,400 megawatts. The maximum demand projected this summer is for 12,000 megawatts, said Scot Cullen, chief engineer of the state PSC's electric division.

State utilities must maintain power reserves at least 18 percent above expected peaks, and they are currently meeting the requirement, Cullen said.

Officials at the state's major electric companies said their control room operators were aware of the cascading blackout almost immediately Thursday. Chris Schoenherr, a spokesman for Alliant Energy Corp. in Madison, said a slight surge on the transmission lines was enough to knock out one of the company's coal units.

However, operations at the Edgewater 4 unit near Sheboygan were restored within two hours.

Because of the state's limited transmission capacity and distance from the East Coast, utilities here wouldn't be able to provide much help in the event of an extended outage, officials said. Still, they are monitoring the situation closely.

"The entire industry right now is watching very carefully, because any instability of this magnitude can spread," Alliant's Schoenherr said. "Our customers have not been impacted, but we're concerned like everyone else."

The power outage didn't significantly upset flights or passengers early Thursday night at the Dane County Regional Airport.

"It really has not had much of an impact yet," airport operations supervisor Ryan Riesinger said about 6:30 p.m.

One flight to Detroit was canceled, and flights to Cleveland and Newark were delayed, he said.

Some of the passengers milling around the terminal were blissfully unaware of the power outage and even many of those who knew about it said they weren't expecting any trouble with their travel plans.

Tim Kirkpatrick and his son, Kyle, were headed to Grand Forks, N.D., through Minneapolis. Kirkpatrick said he thought they would be all right because they were heading northwest.

"I've heard some whining from people going to Cleveland," said Kirkpatrick, who lives in North Lake near Oconomowoc.

But the power outage did put a snarl in Ryan Brown's bachelor party plans.

Brown of Janesville was waiting at the airport to pick up his brother who was flying in from San Antonio. But after that he had to drive to Milwaukee's General Mitchell Airport because a friend who was supposed to be flying to Madison through Cleveland had gotten stuck in Knoxville, Tenn.

The friend thought he could get a flight to Cincinnati and then Milwaukee, Brown said.

"He called me from the airport saying 'Turn on the TV. How am I supposed to get there for your bachelor party?'