Power Line Plan Moves to PSC for Review

A contentious proposal for high-voltage power lines has been filed with the Public Service Commission, setting in motion a nearly year-long review that will culminate with a decision on where and how the 138,000-volt power lines will be sited, a spokesperson with American Transmission Co. said.

The project has stirred controversy not over the need for additional power but over how two 2-mile stretches of high-voltage lines will track through Wauwatosa and a portion of the city of Milwaukee to serve the growing institutions on the County Grounds.

ATC will propose four route options and seeks PSC approval for two – one from the west and one from the south. The high-voltage lines will lead to a new WE Energies substation proposed for North 93rd Street and Watertown Plank Road.

Preserve Our Parkway to propose alternatives

A western route that calls for overhead lines towering 60 to 80 feet along and the Oak Leaf Trail prompted neighbors to band together to develop alternative routes to move the power lines north near West Burleigh Street. Preserve Our Parkway expects to submit at least three route alternatives, developed with the help of an engineering experts, said Ald. Donald Birschel, who represents the district. 

“It’s not that it is just a bunch of ragtag people making up routes,” Birschel said. “We are actually talking to people who have knowledge ... at the university level.”

Although the ATC proposal now will be in the hands of the PSC, the review process includes ongoing opportunity for input at public and technical hearings, including suggestions for alternative routes, said Anne Spaltholz, an ATC spokeswoman.

“If there are folks in the community that have alternative routes ... we certainly welcome those,” Spaltholz said. “At this point, they would likely be presenting them to the Public Service Commission (because) we need to move along in the regulatory process to keep this project in a timeline.”

ATC application details 'dozens' of eliminated routes

Spaltholz said ATC considered “dozens of routes” over the past 16 months before narrowing it to the four that will be submitted for PSC consideration. The PSC requires a least-cost alternative, which is to place the lines on overhead towers. Three of the four routes include a blend of overhead and buried lines. One of the two southern options calls for buried lines for the entire 2-mile route.

“We’re talking about siting two 2-mile routes, so we are not working in a very large study area, which really is the benefit of this project,” Spaltholz said. “The difficulty of this project is that it is in a very congested, urban area – a small congested urban area.”

Birschel said he believes at least one of the route alternatives being developed by Preserve Our Parkway never was explored by ATC, and others the group is putting together were dismissed without explanation. 

Spaltholz said ATC zeroed in on the four in its application as those have the least impact on the area. The application, which likely will be hundreds of pages, will detail all the potential routes ATC examined over the past 16 months, as well as why those routes were dismissed, she said.

Birschel said he plans to ask the city to consider endorsing Preserve Our Parkway’s route proposals. The opposing ATC’s proposed routes along Underwood Creek Parkway and through the Fisher Woods neighborhood. The also have passed resolutions opposing overhead lines and/or lines that would disrupt parkland and neighborhoods.

Seeking support for WE Energies customers

Birschel said he also hopes to gain WE Energies' support of Tosa residents opposed to ATC’s proposed western routes as part of the utllity's customer satisfaction initiatives. Birschel said a WE Energies public relations representative contacted him after his comments at a Feb. 7 council meeting that WE Energies would have a slew of dissatisfied customers if either of the proposed western routes goes through.

“They are watching ... and I told her it would be a great PR tool if WE Energies says they stand by the neighbors,” Birschel said, citing WE Energies’ 26 percent ownership stake in ATC as possible leverage.

The routing of the lines, however, is “not our portion of the project,” said Cathy Schulze, a WE Energies spokesperson. “We do our filing establishing the need for the project and how we came about that.... We don’t really have an option on which route is accepted.”

As for seeking WE Energies support of neighbors’ opposition to specific routes, Schulze said, “I can understand the suggestion ... but that is not something we have done.”

“We really do hope that the folks in the community remain engaged as the project moves into the regulatory phases,” Spaltholz said. “It is in the community’s best interest to continue to remain involved and express their preferences so that can aid the PSC in its decision-making about the project.”

Project overview

ATC's Western Milwaukee County Electric Reliability Project is designed to meet future energy needs that are expected to outstrip current supply by 2015. A western and southern route are needed to create redundancy in case of a power supply failure as the lines would serve the Milwaukee Regional Medical Campus, which includes Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Froedtert Medical Center, among other health care facilities.

ATC estimates the project could cost from $14 million to $40 million, with buried lines the most costly option. ATC expects a PSC decision in early 2013, and ATC then will take the rest of that year to prepare for construction in 2014, with the new power source to come on line by 2015.

The ATC application is available on the PSC web site. Its PSC docket ID is 5-CE-139 and its reference number is 160247. Spaltholz said the PSC also provides copies of the application to the cities involved and to the local public library.

The PSC public comment process is outlined on its web site, including requirements and suggestions for creating effective comments.