The Midwest's power grid operator plans $10.3 billion in major transmission line projects across the Midwest, including $1 billion worth in Michigan. This file photo shows power lines near the Moses-Saunders Power Dam, which straddles the U.S./Canadian border between Massena, New York and Cornwall, Ontario, on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) Cory MorseCory Morse

The Midwest’s regional power grid operator intends to spend the next eight years building out $10.3 billion in major transmission lines meant to help states like Michigan with goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost renewable energy generation.

Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) agreed in July to green-light billions of dollars in electrical transmission lines across the northern Midwest to improve overall resiliency of the regional grid and prepare for coming increases in renewable energy generation. That means reduced risk of rolling blackouts and power outages as the energy industry shifts away from fossil fuels, which historically carried the burden of peak demand.

Estimates are about two million metric tons of carbon emissions will be reduced over a 20-year period through these major powerline projects across the Midwest.

“The MISO grid is undergoing transformative change due to the generation fleet moving from legacy fossil-fuel plants to intermittent renewable resources, electrification and extreme weather events. This change is placing a stress on the transmission system and creating the need for new transmission to move power from where it’s generated to where it’s needed,” said Brandon Morris, MISO spokesperson.

MISO directors on July 25, 2022, approved plans for 18 long-range transmission line projects in what is billed as the largest portfolio of regional power infrastructure buildout of its kind in the United States.

The first phase – called “Tranche 1″ by MISO officials – is expected to be followed by three more phases of major long-range transmission projects across the Midwest and South, as well as better connecting those regions together. The lines in the first phase are expected to come online between 2028 and 2030.

These are the 18 major power transmission projects included as part of MISO's "Tranche 1" plans.

Two of the 18 projects will have footprints within Michigan, bringing 110 miles of new transmission lines and 95 miles of upgrades to existing powerlines. Michigan’s portion of the $10.3 billion investment is expected to be about $1 billion, with expected return benefits pegged at more than $2 billion in upgrades and both decarbonization and resiliency efforts, MISO officials said.

The two projects in Michigan include: a $403 million, double-circuit, 345-kilovolt transmission line from the Oneida substation in Grand Ledge to the Nelson Road substation in Carson City; and, an expected $696 million into a similar transmission line between the Hiple substation in LaGrange County, Indiana, and a new substation to be built in Michigan’s Calhoun County.

The Michigan Public Service Commission will oversee the sighting of the lines. The agency previously studied how Michigan’s peninsular geography limits the state’s ability to import electricity from other states as part of its statewide energy assessment in 2019.

“MISO’s approval of expanded transmission in Michigan allows us to access lower-cost renewables and helps improve the reliability of Michigan’s bulk electric system,” said Dan Scripps, MPSC chairperson.

However, he said MISO’s approval of these major transmission lines does not create a presumption or guarantee of state-level approval for siting the projects. Specifics for the projects in Michigan will need to be reviewed.

Representatives of Michigan’s two largest utilities said the companies support the effort to grow the state’s major power transmission infrastructure.

“DTE supports the need for transmission infrastructure buildout that accommodates the electric industry’s transformation toward cleaner energy,” said Trevor Lauer, DTE president and chief operating officer of DTE Electric.

He also said the company will work with MISO and the local transmission provider – ITC Transmission – to “ensure the right solutions are built to affordably support our company’s future generation plans.”

Officials at Consumers Energy also spoke favorably about investing in major transmission lines.

“Consumers Energy supports efficient transmission investment planning that ensures reliability and facilitates our clean energy investments when it is done in a cost-effective manner,” said Brian Wheeler, Consumers spokesperson.

He said it is important for Michigan residents to get value from these capital outlays, though. This should not be a way to simply prop up other regions, Wheeler said.

“The projects approved by MISO are regional power lines that span multiple states. It’s important that Michiganders get maximum value from MISO’s transmission plans to protect our residents from unnecessarily subsidizing other states’ projects that provide little, if any, benefit to Michigan.”

Energy industry experts said the move will help wind and solar projects across the Upper Midwest join the grid and produce increasingly affordable electricity, while easing the transition away from older coal plants which generate harmful carbon emissions and accelerate the climate crisis. The effort aligns with Michigan’s healthy climate plan to be at 60% renewable energy by 2030 and ultimately carbon-neutral by 2050.

Among the projects in the first phase of long-range connectivity efforts to have the most impact on Michigan include those from Iowa through Illinois, Indiana, and then into Michigan, said James Gignac, senior Midwest energy analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“What these will do is allow better power flows, both from west to east and east to west so that states can share electricity with each other, and also enable lower costs and clean energy resources such as wind and solar power to access the grid. And that will displace more expensive, polluting resources that run on fossil fuels,” he said.

Gignac said the goal is to allow electricity to flow when and where it is needed.

“In circumstances where one part of the region might have lower wind output because it’s not as windy that particular day, but it may be windy in Michigan, and Michigan can then sell or share that electricity with those other places. And vice versa.”

Toba Pearlman, senior attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council, likened the planned improvements to meet the burgeoning renewable energy industry to choosing a driving route when going on a long vacation.

“There are local roads and there are big highways, right? And you don’t want to take a local road if you’re going from Michigan to North Dakota or Montana,” she said. “You want to take highways because you need to get there faster. You’re already stuck in traffic the whole time. And there’s not enough roads currently to get all this electricity online. And so, what that means is that projects are waiting for these roads to be built.”

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