Group raises concerns about power line

MINNESOTA - A $420 million power line under construction northwest of Wausau may not save the state from power supply problems that it is being built to address, a utility watchdog group contends.

The Citizens' Utility Board asked state regulators to take another look at the design of the 220-mile high-voltage transmission line between Wausau and Duluth, Minn.

The line is designed to provide an extra transmission link to Minnesota, when completed in 2008. Currently, the state has only one high-voltage electric tie to the west.

The Citizens' Utility Board said an analysis performed by its consultant says that design problems with the 345,000-volt power line mean it may not be able to perform as envisioned. That could result in damage to power plants or even blackouts if the other line to Minnesota is out of service, the board said.

"We're concerned that we'll be relying on a line that will let us down when we need it the most," said Charlie Higley, executive director of the Citizens' Utility Board.

The board's letter to the commission details several concerns about the power line, which was approved by the state Public Service Commission in 2003. Citizens' Utility Board had opposed the power line, saying it wasn't the best choice for a second connection to Minnesota. But no utility ever proposed to build a line that would have run near the existing 345,000-volt line in the Eau Claire area.

Commission spokeswoman Linda Barth said the commission is reviewing Citizens' Utility Board's request to determine whether it raises issues that weren't addressed in prior reviews of the power line.

"We're confident that we had two exhaustive processes used in approving this line. We approved it twice and the decision was based on a really sound and thorough process," she said.

Mark Williamson, vice president of major projects with Pewaukee- based American Transmission Co., one of the three utilities that proposed the project, said Citizens' Utility Board's concerns are "unfounded," and that the company and other regulatory bodies had already analyzed the line for the problems raised by the board's consultant.

First proposed in 1999 by Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay, the line has been controversial in north-central and northwestern Wisconsin. Opponents claimed the line would provide no benefit to the local region but would help power more populated parts of the state.

Opponents also objected to the line's proposed crossing of the Namekagon River, a federally designated "wild and scenic river."

American Transmission Co. will own the line, but construction is being overseen by WPS. Work began in August in Wisconsin, after a short stretch of the line in Minnesota was built in 2004.

The first stretch of the Wisconsin portion of the line, stretching 142 miles northwest from Wausau, is scheduled to begin carrying electricity by the end of this year.

When completed in 2008, the Wausau-Duluth line will become Wisconsin's sixth voltage connection with surrounding states. Four of those lines link Wisconsin and Illinois, including a small line that was completed last year.