In the wake of this summer’s massive blackout that swept across parts of eastern Canada, the Midwest and the Northeast, backers of a Lake Erie power cable project are urging stakeholders to take a closer look at the project’s potential upsides, both in terms of enhancing energy trading as well as boosting the reliability of the electricity grid.

“The events of Aug. 14 demonstrate the interconnected nature of the electric grid in North America and the importance of assessing the need for more transmission as part of a robust electricity system,” said Michael Ernst, vice-president for permitting and siting at TransEnergie U.S., which is developing the power line proposal with Ontario-based Hydro One.

“The Lake Erie link could be a valuable addition to the transmission infrastructure of the Ontario, Midwest and Northeast U.S. region,” Ernst said in an interview with NGI. “We believe that affected stakeholders should carefully evaluate the potential for the Lake Erie link project as both an additional pathway for day-to-day energy trading and an enhancement to the reliability of the entire interconnected grid.”

The project will consist of buried cables under Lake Erie connecting the transmission system near Simcoe, ON, with those in the United State at either (or both) of Springfield, PA, and Ashtabula, OH. The project would provide an increase in transmission capability of up to 975 MW between the electric control areas of the Ontario Independent Electricity Market Operator, the East Central Area Reliability Coordination Agreement in Ohio and the PJM Interconnection.

Shortly after the Aug. 14 blackout, the head of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) said that the so-called Lake Erie loop, which moves power between the U.S. and Canada, had emerged as the “center of focus” in the investigation of the series of power outages.

NERC CEO Michehl Gent said that the transmission path around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario “has always been a big, big problem, and we’ve tried all sorts of technical innovations to make that easier on the operators, but that will turn out to be an issue here.” The Lake Erie loop cuts through New York along the southern frontier over to Detroit “and then back up through that little neck into Canada and then back around Niagara Falls” and down into the U.S., Gent noted.

Meanwhile, TransEnergie and Hydro One in October 2002 asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to postpone further action on their pending application for the project, saying they needed additional time to negotiate with potential buyers of the Lake Erie link’s transmission capacity.

Ernst last week said that the permitting process remains on hold. “We have not reactivated it yet,” he said. “We are still talking with our partners about how to proceed with the project.” Ernst declined to comment on where things stand as far as negotiations with possible buyers of the project’s transmission capacity.

The project’s sponsors at one point hoped for an in-service date of summer 2004, but that timeframe has since been scuttled. “The expected in-service date will have to be postponed based on the amount of remaining permitting time required and depending on when we resume the permitting process,” Ernst noted.

©Copyright 2003 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.