The final section of the 1287km CapX2020 transmission project has been energised, completing the upgrade and expansion of the grid across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin in the US Midwest.
Eleven companies have partnered on the $2bn initiative, which has taken 13 years to construct and includes four 345kV transmission lines and a 230kV link.
The final piece of the jigsaw was the 113km Big Stone South to Brookings County transmission line, which has nine wind farms and one natural gas generation facility totalling over 2GW requesting interconnection.
The first section between Bemidji and Grand Rapids in Minnesota was opened in 2012 and was followed by three more links in 2015 and 2016.
“CapX2020 is a great example of collaboration,” said Tim Rogelstad, president Otter Tail Power Company, one of the transmission-owning utility partners.
“Investor-owned electric utilities, electric cooperatives, and municipally-owned electric utilities all worked together in an unprecedented way through transmission expansion to ensure we can continue to provide safe, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” he said.
“In this respect we are a model for the rest of the country in transmission development. We have accomplished much more together than we ever could do alone,” Rogelstad added.
Image: CapX2020
