CMP ready to start power line project
By Tux Turkel tturkel@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
Central Maine Power Co. has received the final federal permit to begin work on a $1.4 billion upgrade to its bulk power transmission system, the company is reporting.
With sign-off from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in hand, the company will begin mobilizing contractors within the next few weeks at several sites across central Maine.
“This will be one of the largest construction projects in Maine ’s history,” said Sara Burns, CMP's president.
CMP says the Maine Power Reliability Program will ensure long-term reliability and encourage renewable energy development by increasing the capacity and efficiency of New England ’s transmission grid. The project includes the construction of five new 345-kilovolt substations and related facilities, linked by approximately 450 miles of new or rebuilt transmission lines.
The southern end of the line ties into the New England grid near the New Hampshire border. It passes through 75 cities and towns. The northern end, in Orrington, connects with transmission lines from Canada.
The company introduced the plan after a comprehensive study of the region’s electricity grid found problems that threatened the reliability of CMP’s system and surrounding areas.
The project will sustain an average of 2,000 new jobs during the five years of construction and generate an average of $60 million annually in wages and salary, according to company estimates.
The Maine Power Reliability Program has also been reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the New England Independent System Operator. The Maine Public Utilities Commission and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection approved the project earlier this year.
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13 COMMENTS
SnVzdFN0b3BJdA%3D%3D said...
And those new power lines are being built underground, right? RIGHT???
July 27, 2010 at 11:45 AM Report abuse
gina said...
if CMP is so ready how come the just scrapped ALL bids submitted by local contracters , stating project was too expensive to begin???
July 27, 2010 at 12:29 PM Report abuse
Student04330 said...
I heard that CMP still has not closed on all of the real estate they need to start, it could prove to be a sticking point with some of the alphabet agencies, we shall see,
July 27, 2010 at 12:39 PM Report abuse
Student04330 said...
how can that be, they do not own all of the land yet?
July 27, 2010 at 12:42 PM Report abuse
Jack_Pine said...
Or as the Sun-Journal reports, the project is all about giving the wind farms a way to sell their product. (Out of state I might add). What a fleecing of the ratepayer and taxpayer from the crowd of politicians, bureaucrats in the Augusta bubbled who are detached from reality and attached to our wallets. http://www.sunjournal.com/approved/story/884497
July 27, 2010 at 12:48 PM Report abuse
ThorEau said...
The CMP upgrade, to be paid for by ratepayers, is due solely so that the wind produced in remote spots of Maine can be shipped down to Ct and Mass. So that cost needs to be added to the already "filet mignon" price. We were lied to when we were told it was needed because the lines were 40 years old. In fact, we pay maintenance every month on our bills to keep the lines reliable. (Read the back of your electric bill). And population growth for the entire northeast is forecast as low single digits over the next 20 years - in total, (not per year). Moreover, appliances will get more efficient. Nope, if the crime was ripping up our countryside, the getaway car is the CMP upgrade. And to add insult to injury, it is the ratepayer who is forced to buy the getaway car for a tiny few, who are already profiting immensely from the $23 per MWH subsidy that wind gets - 90 times natural gas! The more I study it, the worse it gets.
July 27, 2010 at 12:55 PM Report abuse
ThorEau said...
4/22/10 - Ex-PUC head enriched by utility company --- Some criticize timing of Adams' 'equity' deal with First Wind ---- AUGUSTA, Maine — While he was Maine's chief utilities regulator, Kurt Adams accepted an ownership interest in a leading wind energy company. One month later, in May 2008, he went to work for that company, First Wind, as a senior vice president. Adams was chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission for three years beginning in April 2005. Before that, he was the in-house counsel for Gov. John Baldacci, who appointed him to the commission. What was Adams hired as at the wind company? DIRECTOR OF TRANSMISSION. ------------ http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/141729.html
July 27, 2010 at 12:58 PM Report abuse
Dino90000000 said...
CMP continues to further monopolize Maine's energy.
July 27, 2010 at 1:46 PM Report abuse
Um9ja3lEdW5kZWU%3D said...
I can't believe that Maine, with its long standing record of preserving its special places, is allowing this huge scale, totally unnecessary, and ridiculously expensive project to proceed. After years of selling this project as needed to make delivery of electricity more reliable, Iberdrola owned CMP has in recent months blatently stated the real purpose---to tie in planned proliferation of wind projects. Where are the environmental groups---NRCM, Audubon, Nature Conservancy and others? Not so long ago, they would have been leading the charge this travesty! They have all sold out to wind industry---an industry that would not exist without the huge TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES and favorable manipulations of laws and the energy markets. We will all be poorer as taxpayers and ratepayers and sadder as Maine's vaunted Quality of Place is destroyed by this misguided embrace of industrial wind and the powerline expansion. Grab your wallets, we are in for huge electricity cost increases.
July 27, 2010 at 1:52 PM Report abuse
mdb13 said...
Thank you CMP for bringing our power infrastructure up to 21st century standards. Progress is a good thing.
July 27, 2010 at 3:39 PM Report abuse
Um9ja3lEdW5kZWU%3D said...
mbd13 and others, a responsible company would have been doing all the local upgrades to the power distribution grid IN MAINE with a multi-year plan and as part of the yearly capital improvement budget. This expansion of trunk lines to 345 kv capacity has nothing whatsoever to do with local electricity distribution, but has everything to do with the scam of proliferating industrial wind sites. Iberdrola, a Spanish company, owns CMP. It makes its money by transmitting electricity. Iberdrola is also the second largest wind company in Europe. They specifically curtailed further investment in wind in Europe in favor of the US because they would make more money from US subsidies. Anyone see the connection here? Anyone want to guess how much TAXPAYERS will shell out to enrich Iberdrola and the wind industry? Anyone want to guess what kind of whopping increase in electric rates we will see with carbon TAXATION and wind power mandates? Mainers are being taken to the cleaners on this!
July 27, 2010 at 4:59 PM Report abuse
windblock said...
It's all about moving energy where the price is highest at the moment to make big bucks from the consumer for the nouveau Enron crooks. The environmental groups were the first to be bought out by the windsprawlers. Why did I donate to the NRCM?
July 29, 2010 at 2:47 PM Report abuse
aHVudGluYWs%3D said...
So when are they going to choose who is going to work on it....is it going to go union or cheap labor??? And when??
August 4, 2010 at 4:10 PM Report abuse