Maureen Borkowski sees electricity transmission development as critical
Ameren Corp. is forming a new transmission subsidiary to build high-voltage power lines across Missouri and Illinois.
The first group projects would consist of more than 500 miles of transmission lines and is expected to cost $1.3 billion. The projects, collectively referred to as the Grand Rivers projects, will be in Illinois.
Leading the effort is Maureen Borkowski, who was named CEO of Ameren Transmission Co. last month.
There are estimates that $300 billion of new transmission will be needed nationwide over the next 20 years. Why is there this need if electricity demand isn’t growing too fast and there’s an emphasis on efficiency?
No matter what your vision of the future outcomes in the energy industry in general, new transmission seems to be one of the things that’s always needed. Across a wide variety of future outcomes, that’s constant.
Even though people are conserving, energy use is still growing. Electric energy helps support economic development, and there is still growth in electricity really in all sectors.
Beyond the growth in usage are changes in the power markets. For example, there’s extreme interest in renewable energy. In the Upper Midwest and further to the west of us there’s a large amount of wind potential, which is appealing to people as a renewable resource. In the western markets, they’ve got solar energy resources as well as wind. To integrate that wind into the system and deliver it to load centers, you need more transmission.
Beyond the interest in wind is the interest in climate change legislation and potential reduction in greenhouse gases. There’s an expectation that there will be pressure in the future for some of the older coal plants that can’t comply with either the current or anticipated environmental regulations to potentially shut down.
In that case, it’s more likely that you’ll have maybe more gas-fired generation, so the changing dispatch patterns will likely lead to more transmission development because the locations of those resources are different than where existing power plants are.
A Department of Energy study looked at the potential for using wind to generate 20 percent of nation’s electricity by 2030. A big part of that is the transmission needed to move power from west to east. Where does Missouri fit in to that scheme?
Our Grand Rivers projects are 345,000-volt projects, which is the prevailing higher voltage in the Midwest. The transmission we’re planning to develop initially is at that voltage level.
What that does is allow both for the integration of the wind power, whether we’re integrating it for use here or providing for the possibility that it goes elsewhere. But our customers are receiving the benefits of that transmission both from a reliability perspective, from a voltage support perspective and from the standpoint of being able to make that wind useful for us.
The U.S. transmission system has been compared with the highway system before interstates. Is that accurate?
Not entirely. We do have quite a bit of cross-country transmission already today. Back in the ’70s, actually, back when Ameren was Union Electric, we participated in building a transmission line that goes from Minneapolis to St. Louis. That’s almost 40 years ago. So it’s not entirely true that we don’t have an interstate highway system yet.
It is true that there are people looking to make that more national of a grid than it is today.
Ameren and its predecessor have built transmission in the past. Why the need now for a separate subsidiary?
There are a number of reasons. As far as customers are concerned, our utility companies are focused on the provision of reliable service and they will continue to invest in transmission to maintain reliable service.
A lot of the projects Ameren Transmission Co. will be investing in are projects of a regional nature. They serve a variety of purposes beyond reliability. They promote integration of wind; they also promote more efficient operation of the power markets. So our customers will benefit from them but in a way that the whole region benefits.
The other reason is transmission as a business, and having it as a business focus is beneficial to our company and our customers from the ability to attract capital. Investors like seeing that you’re focused on that business. By having that as a separate company, it’s a little bit more transparent than it would be included in the other utility enterprises that invest in generation and distribution activities.
Siting transmission lines can be difficult. How does Ameren avoid problems with land owners?
I think the best thing we do as far as avoiding those issues is communicating with the public. We start out very early before the route is even planned and have public meetings to explain the need for the project. I do believe as customers understand why we have the need for transmission, that helps them be more accepting of it.
Once we explain the need, we do start to talk about specific routes. … We have a series of (public) meetings before we even get to the point where we apply with the state commission to get a certificate. Once we do apply for a certificate we actually provide the commission with a preferred route and alternate routes and explain the various costs and benefits of each route. So we’ve already incorporated the public input before we even take it to the state policy leaders.
