Tapping New Energy

Tapping New Energy

Jun 08 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A report by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission on the state's energy needs over the next seven years notes that electricity demand hit an all-time high last year and is growing by 2.5% per year -- enough to require a major new power plant every other year. The political and economic reality is that a major new power plant won't be built every other year. So what will the state do?

Speakers at a PSC-sponsored conference in Milwaukee last week called for balance: new power plants, including nuclear ones; new transmission lines; energy efficiency (Read: use less); renewable sources of energy. The speakers were right. As the PSC and utilities move forward to address the state's needs, each one of those elements must be on the table because each one can provide part of the solution to the challenge the state faces.

One of those elements was discussed in more detail last week by business reporter Thomas Content. As his article pointed out, the need for more transmission lines -- in-state and lines that connect Wisconsin to other states -- is serious. Because of geography -- pretty big lakes to the east and north -- Wisconsin is only weakly connected to the national power grid, which itself is not in terrific shape, as last summer's blackout in the Northeast demonstrated.

New power lines are controversial because they require some space and some environmental damage. Building of the Arrowhead-Weston line across northwestern Wisconsin, for example, has been slowed partly because of stiff and well-organized opposition. But nothing in the energy world is without controversy. Propose a coal plant, and you hear talk about air-fouling emissions; a natural gas plant, and you hear about the cost of gas and the harm caused by drilling and piping it here; a nuclear plant, and you hear about toxic waste; a wind farm, and you hear about noise, sightlines and even -- believe it or not -- ice shearing off blades and plummeting into nearby homes.

Most of those concerns are legitimate, but avoiding all of them means that nothing will get built, and that means there will come a day when the lights will not turn on.

Maripat Blankenheim, a spokeswoman for American Transmission Co., which builds and owns power lines in much of the state, says the company hopes that people will begin to understand the need. With that in mind, the company has started working early with potential opposition groups to make sure they're included in the process of developing plans for new lines.

It's a good approach, and one from which other power-related companies could benefit. With its series of conferences on its long- range energy plan, the PSC is working along similar lines. What's needed are more light and less heat (OK, in the winter we need more light and more heat). It's good to see the PSC and American Transmission Co. working on ways to provide that light.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .