Jan 12 2010
ITC Midwest LLC connected 716 megawatts of installed wind energy generation to the company’s electric transmission system during the year 2009 as part of its strategy to develop wind energy in the Midwest.
The generation of energy from the installed capacity by the company is equal to the amount of electricity consumed by 200,000 homes. More than 1,500 megawatts of wind energy has been connected by the company after adding 810 megawatts wind generation connected to the ITC Midwest system during the year 2008. These connections took place within two years since operations commenced in Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois.
Almost 6,800 miles of electric transmission lines were bought by ITC Midwest in December 2007. These electric transmission lines were acquired from Alliant Energy’s Interstate Power and Light subsidiary. The nameplate output of five new Iowa wind farms are represented by the 716 megawatts of new wind generation connected in the year 2009. ITC is also working with developers of wind energy to connect hundreds of additional megawatts of wind energy to the grid during the year 2010.
Doug Collins, Executive Director of ITC Midwest, remarked that Iowa has experienced substantial growth in its renewable energy resources in the past few years. In the year 2005, Iowa had almost 830 megawatts of installed energy across the entire state. The same quantity of wind generation was interconnected by ITC Midwest in each of the last two years. Collins stated that the company is pleased to offer its help in bringing these renewable resources on-line and enabling the utility customers in the Midwest to make use of the benefits of wind energy.
Collins further remarked that the output of wind generation to the system is limited due to transmission constraints even though ITC Midwest has over 2,200 megawatts of wind generation capacity connected to its system in Minnesota and Iowa. ITC is continuing to work with the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, federal and state officials and other utility partners to analyze and develop an appropriate system that will move renewable energy to the load demand centers to the east.
Source: http://www.itc-holdings.com/