Projects
Our Project Philosophy
In developing system expansion, ITC has a number of goals:
- Maintaining safety
- Improving reliability
- Relieving congestion
- Reducing system losses
Our first focus is on replacing aging transmission facilities and equipment across our service territory in Michigan and other Midwestern states. Since the company’s inception in 2003, ITC has invested nearly $900 million in system upgrades and maintenance. This investment has resulted in increased reliability, a reduction in energy losses and has helped pave the way for the entrance of renewable resources.
At ITC, seeking the innovative solution to reliable, responsible, low-cost electricity is utmost priority.
The line, approximately six miles long, connects ITC’s Sixth Street electric substation in downtown Cedar Rapids to the Beverly substation south of Highway 30. The line will carry electricity at 161 kilovolts (161 kV), up from the 34.5 kV line currently in place. The line runs generally from the Sixth Street substation, west across the Cedar River, along L Avenue NW, before turning south at Shawnee Park. The line crosses First Avenue at 18th Street SW and continues south until it follows the CRANDIC railroad tracks south to the Beverly substation.
ITC Midwest (ITC) is proposing to reconstruct and upgrade the existing 115 kV line to 161 kV between ITC’s Fernald Substation located in Story County and ITC’s Boone substation located in Boone County.Upgrading the line from 115 kV to 161 kV will also require the upgrade of existing substation equipment at substations along the 23.25 mile long line, as the line loops in and out of ITC’s Fernald, Ames, and Boone substations, and also loops through the Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) Boone Junction Substation. ITC Midwest is planning to use the existing 115 kV right of way. To reduce the impact on landowners’ property, the present 115 KV two-pole structures will be replaced with a single pole structure.
ITC Midwest is planning to reconstruct and upgrade the existing 161kV line between the company’s Hayward substation, located west of Hayward, Minnesota, and ITC Midwest’s Freeborn substation, located between Manchester and Albert Lea, Minnesota. The current 11-mile line was built in the 1950s and is reaching the end of its useful life. As part of the upgrade, ITC Midwest will build the line to higher capacity, while maintaining the voltage at 161 kV. This upgrade will improve the reliability of the line. The line’s increased capacity also will support the needs of the wind farms in the area.
To improve reliability and meet the region’s growing energy demands, ITC Midwest is proposing to build a new electric transmission line and substation in northern Linn County.
The Hiawatha-Coffey line will connect ITC Midwest’s existing Hiawatha electric substation (located in the south part of Robins) to a proposed new substation, called Coffey substation, to be located on Austin Road one-half mile west of Highway 13. The new line will connect the two substations, which are approximately 10 miles apart, and carry electricity at 161 kilovolts (161 kV).
ITC Midwest is working to upgrade its existing 115 kilovolt (kV) line between the company’s Nuthatch substation north of Iowa Falls and its substation located adjacent to the Marshalltown Generating Station. The existing line is approximately 60 years old and is reaching the end of its useful life.
The Sixth Street-Prairie Creek Industrial line connects ITC Midwest’s Sixth Street electric substation in downtown Cedar Rapids to the company’s Prairie Creek Industrial substation north of Highway 30. The line, approximately four and one-quarter miles long, will carry electricity at 161 kilovolts (161 kV), up from the 34.5 kV line currently along the route.
The Salem-Hazleton project was identified early on as a priority once ITC Midwest acquired the region’s high-voltage electric transmission lines from Alliant Energy’s Interstate Power and Light Company subsidiary in December 2007. The line is a priority because it addresses a long-standing need in eastern Iowa.
As energy demand has grown over the years, certain areas of the Midwest have experienced energy bottlenecks caused by lack of electric transmission capacity. These bottlenecks hurt electric reliability and add costs to energy consumed in the region. ITC Midwest and the regional reliability organization, the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (Midwest ISO), first identified the need to address this energy reliability issue in the Midwest ISO’s 2006 Eastern Iowa Reliability Study.