NPPD has 2-phase upgrade in works

COLUMBUS - The powerful economic engine in the region provided a jolt for a Columbus-based utility's plans for up to a $140-million upgrade in its high-voltage transmission network by 2010.

Power demand in the east-central Nebraska region spiked during the summers of 2005-06 and has been climbing at more than double Nebraska Public Power District's average annual projections over a five-year period, said Ed Wagner, the utility's vice president of energy supply.

“We know that it's a dynamic world, and things change going forward,'' Wagner said during a meeting Tuesday in Columbus with utilities officials and community leaders from throughout the region.

“We have to design a system to serve NPPD's customers reliably,” he said.

NPPD annually assesses power bottlenecks and low-voltage issues for delivering power along its transmission system. The utility reached new all-time peak load levels once in July 2005 and twice last July.

Wagner said NPPD's transmission lines were stressed and transformers were overloaded during periods of peak loads. “This project is the fix that we need.''

Wagner said the region's economic vigor and rising power demand has been fueled by a rapidly developing ethanol industry, industrial and commercial expansions, the new Keystone Oil Pipeline and an expanding irrigation load.

The NPPD project, known officially as the Electric Transmission Reliability Project for East-Central Nebraska, is slated to be completed in two phases.

Phase 1, scheduled for completion in mid-2008, calls for substation improvements and conversion of an existing transmission line from Norfolk to Columbus from 230 kilovolts to 345 kilovolts.

The first phase would include an upgrade of the Hoskins Substation adjacent to the Nucor Steel Plant near Norfolk.

Phase 2, set to go into service in 2010, also would involve substation improvements and construction of a new 345 kilovolt transmission line from Columbus to northwest Lincoln.

The second phase includes two future substations, known as Shell Creek and Columbus East, located 2.75 miles northeast of Lake North and approximately 4.5 miles east of U.S. Highway 81 on Eighth Street (south of Behlen Mfg. Co.).

The exact route for the new line planned in Phase 2 has not been chosen.

“NPPD is communicating very early in the process with our customers and other interested parties who may be affected by this transmission line project,” Wagner said.

The results of a transmission study completed in May sparked the project unveiled Tuesday.

“We know there is a real need for investment in transmission system reliability, and we've identified that this project is the right thing to do,'' Wagner said. “We feel it's important to include the public in the process, and we're going into this telling people what we know, at this time, and we're asking for their input.

Once NPPD has identified general corridors the new transmission line from Columbus to Lincoln may follow, utility officials plan to meet with interested residents along those corridors.

“We'll talk to folks about our plans. The impact on property owners will be important,'' Wagner said.

NPPD expects to begin its line-routing study in the spring. The transmission line will go about 13 miles between Shell Creek and Columbus East substations and nearly 80 miles from Columbus to Lincoln.

The transmission project will be coordinated with Archer Daniels Midland Co.'s plans for a new plant located next to the existing Eighth Street facility, Wagner said.

The new ADM plant will boost ethanol production from about 100 million gallons to 500 million gallons annually. Ethanol production should begin by 2008 or 2009.

The ADM project calls for building an electricity-generation plant in Columbus to help power its corn milling and ethanol operations.

The generation plant is expected to be able to burn a blend of fuels, including high- and low-sulfur coals, tire-derived fuel and biomass to produce steam and electric energy. As with the expanded ethanol plant, construction is dependent upon governmental approvals.