The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the route of the 500kV Great Northern Transmission Line, which will deliver hydropower from Canada to Northeastern Minnesota.
A presidential permit for the link from the US Department of Energy, needed because the line crosses an international border, is expected in March or April.
The Great Northern Transmission Line will be used to deliver electricity from Manitoba Power to Minnesota Power customers and the region under a power purchase agreements approved in 2012 and 2015.
The approved 224-mile route will cross the border between the US and Canada in Roseau County in northern Minnesota, about three miles east of Minnesota Highway 89 and run to an expanded Blackberry electric substation east of Grand Rapids.
Construction is expected to start in 2017 with the line completed by 2020.
Minnesota Power estimates the total cost of the project will be between $560 million and $710 million.
Manitoba Hydro filed last September its environmental documents and final preferred route with provincial regulators as part of the process for securing a license for the transmission line in Manitoba.
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