State's power grid is improving, utility says: Outlook for summer is good, barring unforeseen trouble

WISCONSIN - The state's power grid is in better shape every year but still needs work to help Wisconsin keep up with rising demand for electricity, executives with the state's power line utility said recently.

The outlook for the summer looks good, although simultaneous shutdowns of large power plants or high-voltage power lines could create trouble, said Teresa Mogensen, vice president of system operations at American Transmission Co.

No reliability problems cropped up last summer, even through two of the state's three nuclear reactors were out of service and most state utilities were setting records for electricity demand.

Wisconsin's utilities have been on a power plant building boom to beef up the supply of electricity. New power lines are being constructed to help import power on hot summer days. The building boom followed electricity shortages in the summers of 1997 and 1998 that led utilities to urge customers to conserve power to avoid rolling blackouts.

But problems on the grid have occurred in recent years. Weak links between northern Wisconsin and Michigan contributed to a blackout in the Upper Peninsula several years ago, and the Wausau area experienced severe electrical shortages and narrowly averted a blackout this spring, Mogensen said.

The American Transmission Co. summer outlook is in line with other forecasts. A national report issued earlier this week said there may be power supply challenges in southern California and parts of Connecticut.

A report released Wednesday by the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator said demand is expected to rise by 1% from last year across its 15-state territory. But the operator of a wholesale energy market said the outlook for reliability is good.

In Wisconsin, the state Public Service Commission says that construction of new power plants has helped create a cushion that will not require the state to import as much power as it did during the electricity crisis of the late 1990s.

In eastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Pewaukee-based American Transmission has spent more than $1 billion over the past five years on upgrades to the state's network of high-voltage power lines. More work is needed, particularly in Upper Michigan, Dane County and north-central and northeastern Wisconsin, said Mark Williamson, the company's vice president of major projects.

The summer outlook was released during a period when the Kewaunee nuclear plant, one of three nuclear reactors serving the state, remains out of service. The plant was shut down nearly three weeks ago. Milwaukee-based We Energies has both of its reactors at Point Beach running, though one is scheduled to be shut down this fall for refueling.

That refueling is planned to take place after the hot summer weather is finished. American Transmission projects around the state include work in the Oak Creek area to connect We Energies' new coal- fired power plants to the grid later this decade, as well as work in the Wausau area and construction of a new line that will replace an aging and deteriorating line between far northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Mogenson said.

The biggest project under way is the $420 million Wausau-Duluth transmission line. That line is about 40% complete, Williamson said. Work is all but complete in the Wausau area and is progressing north.

American Transmission is poised next week to identify three routes for the first long high-voltage power line in southwestern Wisconsin in decades. The new line is needed to address rising demand for electricity in fast-growing Dane County, and to improve the ability to import enough power when Madison Gas & Electric Co. shuts down its coal-fired power plant in downtown Madison.

Williamson said the three routes include one that would run along the Madison beltline highway in the central part of the county, another more southerly route through the Fitchburg area and heading north to the Middleton area, and another much longer and more costly line that would be located along the southern end of the county.

American Transmission's proposals for Dane County have resulted in several landowner groups forming to object to different possible routes, including a group concerned about preserving Badger State Trail, a popular hiking and biking trail.