Grain Belt Express CAN Be Buried!

Invenergy was completely unprepared for Illinois landowners who asked why the project was not proposed to be buried on existing rights of way at recent "Open House" dog and pony shows.

Instead, Invenergy personnel just made up some pretty laughable excuses. 

Burial along existing roadways is possible because Invenergy is doing just that on a proposed HVDC transmission line in New York.  Clean Path New York is a joint venture between Invenergy, Energy RE and the New York Power Authority.  The project

bundles new transmission with new clean energy — about 3,400 megawatts of new wind and solar capacity to be built upstate by EnergyRe and Invenergy, the latter a major clean energy developer. 

Of the project’s $11 billion price tag, about $3.5 billion would go toward building a 174-mile high-voltage direct-current transmission line capable of carrying 1,300 MW of power from upstate to New York City, with completion set for 2027. The remainder of the budget would fund the new wind and solar. 

The New York Power Authority will provide the right of way for much of the project underneath its existing 345-kilovolt overhead transmission line running from Utica to Orange County, with the remaining stretch buried along roadways and underneath the Hudson River.

So a HVDC transmission line CAN be buried along existing roadways, under water, and underneath existing AC transmission lines.... when Invenergy wants to do it.

But look at that price tag!  174 miles of line costs $3.5B!  That's more than the cost of the entire 800-mile long Grain Belt Express project!  But even at that cost, Invenergy can still manage to make a profit on the New York line.  Sort of makes you think about how much profit could be made on GBE if it builds a much cheaper project on overhead lattice towers.  Go ahead, get out your calculators...

What Invenergy spends on line, it more than makes up for by building wind and solar farms in upstate New York and selling the electricity to New York City.  The federal government pays for most of the wind farm through generous production tax credits.  Invenergy gets paid by taxpayers for every electron it generates, and subsequently sells to electric customers.  Taxpayers pay Invenergy to generate electricity, and then they pay to purchase the electricity they paid to generate.  What a racket!  But don't you think that Invenergy might also want to build the non-existent wind farms in Kansas that it proposes will be served by GBE?

Perhaps most galling of all Invenergy's lies is its assertion that its New York project is "an example to the nation" for how to build transmission without causing sacrifice from landowners.

... its use of underground high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) line along existing rights of way to minimize the risk of opposition from landowners and communities along the path of the project.... ​“We think that using existing rights of way is less impactful, both ecologically and in terms of communities and view corridors,” he said. ​“We think that this project will serve as an example for the rest of the nation on how to solve these complex issues.”

Not much of an example when Invenergy turns right around and tries to ram through an overhead transmission project using eminent domain to acquire new rights of way across private property that is hotly opposed by landowners in four states. 

What a bunch of HYPOCRITES.

What's good for the goose is always good for the gander, and landowners in the Midwest aren't getting the same respect that Invenergy has shown to landowners in New York.  What makes landowners in New York more important than landowners in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois?

There’s certainly a need for strategies to enable massive grid expansion that can accommodate large amounts of new wind and solar power. Proposed transmission projects can face a decade or more of challenges related to siting, permitting and cost allocation. These hurdles have fatally tripped up several high-profile projects over the past decade. 

Burying HVDC cables along existing railroads and highways can dramatically simplify the process, bypassing the need to get permits from multiple states, counties and private landholders for overhead transmission towers. Technology advances over the past decade have allowed these types of projects to compete with overhead lines on cost.

See that link above for "several high-profile projects"?  Go ahead and click it.  It's a list of 7 transmission projects that have been stymied by landowner opposition.  Grain Belt Express is number 4 on the list.

Also, the "existing railroads and highways" link goes to a story about SOO Green Renewable Rail.  SOO Green is very much alive, despite what you may have been told by Invenergy.  SOO Green is building an underground HVDC project on existing rights of way without any subsidies from the State of Illinois, or any other state.  That's because the project's economics pencil out, even with increased costs to bury the project.  Buried HVDC can be done in Illinois.

If you read the linked article, you will find out that SOO Green's biggest hurdle right now isn't landowners, but getting through the interconnection process at PJM, the east coast power grid.  Guess what?  GBE also plans to interconnect with PJM.  Get in line, fellas!

The cost is manageable.  The technology exists.  There's an existing interstate that runs east-west across all three states.  Burying Grain Belt Express on existing highway right of way is absolutely possible!

Why then is Invenergy trying to build an outdated and invasive project across prime farmland?  Why isn't there any respect for the landowners in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois? 

Why is Invenergy so greedy about potential profit?  The cheaper GBE is to construct, the larger Invenergy's profit.

Isn't it about time that landowners and elected officials in Illinois get straight answers from Invenergy, instead of self-serving lies?