Soo Green Franchise Agreement Meetings Underway

The monumental Soo Green HVDC transmission project (subject of a 2021 Winneshiek Energy District Energy Lunch), finally gained IUB approval in the fall of 2023. It’s truly an innovative, capital-intensive project that’s important in the big picture of the clean energy transition.

The company is now discussing franchise agreements with the communities where the line will be located. One such public hearing has been scheduled for February 5, 2024, at 5:00pm in Ossian.

Background on the project and an outline of benefits appear on the Soo Green site, soogreen.com.

Community Benefits
  • Communities in Iowa and Illinois will benefit from the SOO Green HVDC Link because it will generate more than $2.2 billion in economic output, create thousands of construction, operations, and maintenance jobs, and spur additional economic activity throughout the Midwest. Additionally, communities will benefit from more than $1.5 billion in induced investment in new renewable energy component production.
Environmental Benefits
  • By installing the conductor cable underground along existing railroad right-of-way and other transportation corridors, SOO Green reduces the need for tree clearing and eliminates threats to sensitive species such as migratory birds, bats, or native plants. It also reduces visual impacts to communities on the route. 
  • The SOO Green HVDC Link team is committed to minimizing environmental impacts during construction and operation and are working in collaboration with federal, state, and local agencies to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
Economic Impact
  • The project represents an additional economic output in the state of Iowa of almost $1.0 billion from transmission construction. The project will result in thousands of construction, operations and maintenance jobs, and additional economic activity throughout the Midwest.
  • The project will also generate revenue for local jurisdictions throughout its 50-year expected service life, supporting public services such as roads, emergency services and schools.
Grid Benefits
  • Newly available HVDC conductor cable technology enable the delivery of large quantities of wind and solar energy across long distances to urban load, centers with little line loss. This cable technology enables the SOO Green HVDC Link project to be unaffected by severe weather incidents.
  • SOO Green HVDC Link will use innovative AC to DC and DC to AC converter stations known as self-commutated Voltage Sourced Converters (VSC) that provide important grid support functions and power transfer capabilities not previously available. With the largest VSCs ever installed in the U.S, the 2,000-megawatt renewable energy-powered SOO Green HVDC Link will deliver functionality to the power grid similar to that of a large power plant, but without any adverse environmental or community impacts.
Further Key Points (from CEDI’s point of view)
  • This is a high-capacity region interconnection that will promote grid stability:
    • It will connect the Midwest (MISO) and Eastern (PJM) grids.
    • Yes, it will largely export Iowa wind to the east, but it will ALSO provide the opportunity for two-way flows during times of grid emergencies (such as winter storms and summer heat waves), so the eastern grid can support a midwest grid in trouble, and vice versa. This is a BIG DEAL entirely apart from renewable energy issues.
  • As a direct current (HVDC) line (as opposed to AC), the technology allows it to be a buried line, which combined with the utilization of the railroad right-of-way, means above-ground impact is limited to construction, which is huge, because nobody likes to live under/near major transmission lines.
  • Also because of the railroad right-of-way route (ROW), there is almost no eminent domain necessary – just six parcels were approved in the IUB order (none in Winneshiek County, for example).
  • This is approved specifically and only as a Merchant Line, which is a business model relying on the voluntary purchase of energy/capacity by utilities and developers served, so there is no automatic rate-basing whereby ratepayers in Iowa or the Midwest are socked with higher costs.
  • Yes, the line will largely serve to export Iowa wind (and in the future, possibly solar) to the east, thus reducing congestion and allowing for further renewables development, which overall is a good thing in the greening grid, though not necessarily a priority issue to many Iowans at this particular point in history.

 

Posted: January 31, 2024

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Andrew Johnson

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