Don't leave Wisconsin in the dark
3:10 PM 8/16/03

The lights went out on Broadway last week during the largest power outage in U.S. history, but the disaster turned a spotlight to a critical economic threat.

North America's outdated electrical transmission system - the wires and substations that bring electricity to our homes and businesses - will no doubt take the blame for the blackout that rolled Thursday across a vast swath of the northern United States as well as southern Canada.

Wisconsin residents could click on the TV to check out the situation, but make no mistake: It could easily have been us.

More easily, actually. The outage is a warning signal to Wisconsin, where a neglected, snap-crackle-pop electrical grid strains to move electricity to voraciously power-hungry consumers.

Any additional neglect of this grid could bring equally disastrous results. Wisconsin imports much of its power, and just four major transmission lines bring electricity into the state. Even before Thursday's disaster, the American Transmission Co., which operates much of the state's high-voltage transmission system, was warning that Dane County is particularly vulnerable to outages.

The transmission network in and around Madison has languished for nearly 30 years without a major expansion. Before the end of this decade, the network will no longer meet our needs reliably. A single lightning bolt in the wrong place could set off a network crash that would leave much of the area powerless.

The story is the same elsewhere in Wisconsin. But the not-in-my-backyard crowd apparently wants to keep their Wisconsin neighbors in the dark. Sorry folks: That hotly contested $410 million Arrowhead-Weston high voltage line that would run from Duluth, Minn., to the Wausau area, would be only the first measure needed to restore reliable electrical power delivery in Wisconsin.

The line, which could be constructed within five years if approved this fall, would relieve demand on an existing line between Arpin and Eau Claire - one of the most strained strands of wire in the country.

But Madison needs at least one more major electrical line, and southwestern Wisconsin also is power-hungry.

Wisconsin's embattled power plant promoters may soon try to make political hay of last week's Northeast power blackout, the largest in U.S. history. Yes, we need more generating capacity. But more importantly, we need to get the power to consumers safely and efficiently.

It's time to cooperate with power expansion plans, not obstruct them. A proposed local task force on energy ought to consider power line improvements as job No. 1.

And, yes, consumers will have to accept a small increase in electric rates - probably around 1 percent of their total bill - to pay for the expansion. But quick action is critical to preserve Wisconsin's energy security.