Utilities in the West face the growing complexities of transmitting electricity to keep the lights on

Utilities in the West face the growing complexities of transmitting electricity to keep the lights on

Rocky Mountain News August 28, 2004

Most Coloradans felt smug and far removed from the rolling blackouts in the Northeast last August that left 50 million people in the dark.

But the lights can go out here, too.

While Colorado has plenty of power, the state could face a crisis in the coming years getting that power to homes and businesses.

As utilities build new power plants to serve the Front Range's growing population, they face challenges - from community opposition to regulatory hurdles - in matching that increased capacity with new power lines.

"Our biggest concern is what new (power) generation is coming down the road, and can we keep up with it?" said Sandra Johnson, manager of transmission planning at Xcel Energy, the state's biggest utility.

Recently, Xcel and other utilities got together to figure out the situation.

They estimate Colorado needs 2,750 megawatts of new power by 2014 to keep up with demand. And to carry this load to the customers, they may have to invest from $550 million to $850 million in transmission lines or high-voltage power lines.

Xcel owns about 3,700 miles of transmission lines in Colorado. It has added 105 miles since 2001, and needs to build at least that much in the next three years as new power plants come online.

Johnson says the actual investment in transmission would depend on the capacity and the location of future power plants.

But even after the lines are planned, it is a challenge to put them up. Nobody wants a power line in his back yard, and most communities fight it.

And power companies in Colorado need approval from every city, municipality, county and the state before they can build a line crossing those different jurisdictions.

Also, there is an ongoing debate in Washington as to who should regulate and manage the lines - the utilities, the states, the federal government or independent regional organizations.

This uncertainty chills investment in transmission to some extent.

Investigations have linked the Northeast blackouts to a tree branch that fell on a transmission line. The resulting outage was not caught in time, and it cascaded to other areas.

And most agree it could have been prevented if the grids were better maintained, and there were more transmission lines to reroute the power.

These same issues plague the West, too.

"The key questions are: How do we get more power lines built in the West? And who pays for them?" said Jim Sims, executive director of the Golden-based Western Business Roundtable that often lobbies on energy issues.

Different landscape

Most of Xcel's lines were built decades ago.

They carry power from the far- flung plants to substations on the outskirts of towns and cities where the voltage is reduced. That low-voltage power is distributed to homes and businesses.

But with the Front Range's population spurt in recent years, homes have sprung up in and around substations and transmission corridors. Now it is more difficult to plan new transmission lines or upgrades in those communities.

Xcel spent $276 million in transmission lines in the past decade. In that period, it added 2,900 megawatts of new power generation to the grid - an investment in the range of $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion.

Linda Nuzum, president of the Castle Pines North Homeowners Association, says utilities face opposition because they don't have a plan.

They just build lines when plants come up, and often the lines encroach on people's properties.

And the constant buzz created by the lines is a nuisance, Nuzum complains.

Nuzum says she raised this issue during a meeting last year, when Xcel proposed to upgrade a line passing through her neighborhood.

The local homeowners fought hard and lost; now Xcel will start construction on the $55 million project this fall - after a delay of 18 months.

The line will bring more power from a plant in Midway near Colorado Springs to Daniels Park, just outside of metro Denver.

"I think a utility can plan," Nuzum said. "If it needs a major transmission corridor in a particular region, it can plan the right of way, the expected noise level, the height of towers and other things."

"But the (utility's) attitude is, just suck it up. We can't do anything about it," Nuzum said.

Not in my back yard

Nuzum's neighbor Lane Roberts, also a Castle Pines resident, understands the need for more lines. But she doesn't want them in her back yard.

"I do live in a community and I would like to see the line buried. I don't want it in my back yard," Roberts said. "We are concerned about the noise. We fought the giant and lost."

Similar opposition was voiced by communities in San Miguel County where Tri-State, a wholesale power company, is planning to upgrade a transmission line between Telluride and Nucla in Montrose County. Tri-State, which owns 5,000 miles of transmission lines in the state, will spend $13.2 million on that particular line.

Utilities argue that burying lines is too expensive and an unnecessary burden on ratepayers.

The cost of transmission is about 10 percent of the price of electricity. Roughly 10 percent is the cost of distribution, while the remaining 80 percent is the cost of generation.

State regulators have to approve the rates, although they don't regulate transmission.

"If there is a need to build transmission lines and utilities do it at minimum cost, we don't have any problem," said Gary Schmitz, chief economist of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

"We do have a concern about reliability," Schmitz added. "We monitor the transmission lines to ensure reliable service. But the PUC won't issue orders asking utilities to build more lines."

Utilities say they try to coordinate plans to build more transmission in the state.

But it is hard to guess what the demand for power will be 10 to 20 years down the road. And it's even harder to plan what amount of transmission will be required to carry that power, they say.

And the difficulty is compounded by the negative public perception. Instead of accepting power lines as an important infrastructure for a developed world, communities now fight it.

"Growing up on a farm in Illinois, my dad would point to an electrical pole and say, 'Look son, this is progress,' " said Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz. "Now, people say, 'It is a nuisance, an infringement in our property.' We are a victim of our own success."

West lagging behind

With little or no government direction, the West has lagged behind in transmission.

"The problem in the West is that our transmission system is outdated and often constrained," Jim Sims of Western Business Roundtable said. "In fact, few improvements in the system have been made in the West for the past 20 years."

"Worse yet, little is on the drawing board for the next 10 years."

And this also impacts the cost of electricity.

Since transmission lines also carry power from one state to another, it helps the wholesale trade of power across various regions.

Utilities can buy power from the cheapest supplier in the wholesale market even if that supplier is hundreds of miles away in another state.

Because the West doesn't have enough transmission lines, it cannot trade in power as actively as other regions such as the East Coast. However, Colorado is somewhat unusual since most of its power demand is met by local plants and it doesn't have too much excess power to sell.

"I have heard complaints from sellers about lack of access to the West," said Gary Ackerman, executive director of the Western Power Trading Forum in California which represents 38 members, including Xcel, that buys or sells power in the market.

"People throw up their hands and say they won't trade in the West."

Customers lose because there aren't enough lines to deliver cheap power from other areas.

For instance, the Great Northern Power Development - a power company in Denver - wants to build a wind and coal combined power plant in a remote part of North Dakota.

Similarly, producers of cheap coal-fired electricity in Wyoming want to sell in Colorado.

They can't because the congestion in existing lines pushes up transmission rates and makes electricity more expensive, said Jerry Vaninetti, president of Great Northern Power.

"In the West, existing lines are at maximum capacity," Vaninetti said. "At the same time, demand for electricity has continued to grow."

"But each region has its own challenges in building and coordinating transmission lines. So each region should be allowed to take care of its problems," Vaninetti added.

Directing energy flow

Many, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said a regional transmission organization is the panacea.

An RTO, like an air traffic controller, directs the flow of electricity to different transmission lines just like a controller directs airplanes to various flight paths.

The RTO does not own the electricity or the transmission lines. It just coordinates the trade and flow of electricity so that companies can buy and sell power via one agency.

Since electricity cannot be stored, it is crucial to have a demand and supply balance at all times.

The energy commission said that splitting transmission into a separate entity reduces financial conflicts in utilities. Since congested lines keep up the price of electricity, utilities that own power plants benefit from these prices.

So, the energy commission argues, utilities don't have much incentive to relieve congestion by building new lines.

The idea of an RTO was rapidly adopted by the East Coast, parts of the Midwest and Texas. Except California, none of the western states, including Colorado, warmed to it. In any case, FERC itself has cooled off.

"We did step back; RTOs are not happening in the West anytime soon," said FERC spokesman Bryan Lee.

Still, many utilities, consultants and consumer groups in the West are studying the idea of broader, regional operators of transmission grids.

These include Grid West, West Connect and Transmission Interest Group, to name a few.

They argue that too many power grid operators not only add to the cost of electricity but also affect reliability of the grid. In fact, some say the Northeast blackouts could have been contained if there were fewer operators managing the grid.

"The blackout was an alarm to get people to not do things in a piecemeal manner, one way here and one way there," Ackerman said. "We ought to manage the grid on a comprehensive, unified basis."

Since then, some steps have been taken. Operators now say there are improved procedures for communication between regions and better warning systems to catch outages before they cascade to other areas.

The Western Business Roundtable also supports a regional operator to manage the grid in Colorado, noting it would "free up the investment dollars and get transmission lines built."

"Consumers across the West deserve and will demand a transmission system that delivers low- cost and reliable power when and where it is needed," Sims said. "We believe a regional entity authorized by Congress would be a win-win for all."

Power lines and health

What are transmission power lines?

• They are the high-voltage lines that carry power from power plants to substations or between substations. Generally, they carry voltage greater than 35 to 65 kilovolts. Transmission power lines radiate magnetic and electric fields that pulse 60 times per second. This is called extra-low-frequency EMF.

Why might they be dangerous?

• Magnetic fields are known to interact with animal tissues, and are therefore potentially dangerous.

Are magnetic fields from power lines dangerous to human health?

• There is evidence that exposure to extra-low- frequency magnetic fields of an average intensity greater than 2 milligauss doubles the risk of a child contracting leukemia. There is evidence that even momentary exposure to ELF fields greater than 16 milligauss increase by a factor of five that a woman will have a spontaneous abortion within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. There is also evidence that these fields are associated with other diseases. Exposures below 2 milligauss appear to have no adverse health effects.

How common are magnetic field exposures at the dangerous levels?

• Not very common. Less than 2 percent of the population experiences ELF magnetic fields that average more than 2 milligauss. Average U.S. exposure is around 0.5-0.75 milligauss. The number of those who experience momentary exposure greater than 16 milligauss is not known.

What are other potential risks?

• It is undisputed that fields above 1 millivolt per meter can disrupt heart pacemakers and defibrillators. Electric fields of this intensity, while rare in general, are common immediately adjacent to transmission power lines.

Excerpted From Powerlinefacts.Com, ###169### 2002 Power Line Task Force Inc.

chakrabartyg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2976

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