ATC, ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative: Receive completeness determination from PSCW for Cardinal-Hickory Creek Project

Media contacts:
American Transmission Co.: Kaya Freiman, 877-506-6117, kfreiman@atcllc.com

ITC Midwest: Rod Pritchard, 319-297-6840, rpritchard@itctransco.com

Dairyland Power Cooperative: Katie Thomson, 608-787-1323, katie.thomson@dairylandpower.com OR Deb Mirasola, 608-787-1378, deb.mirasola@dairylandpower.com

MADISON, Wis. – The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) on Oct. 4 deemed complete the American Transmission Co., ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative application to construct the Cardinal-Hickory Creek Project.

The utilities are seeking approval to build an approximately 102- to 120-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line from Dane County, Wisconsin, to Dubuque County, Iowa. The application can be found by visiting www.psc.wi.gov and entering Docket No. 5-CE-146.

“As required by Wisconsin law, the PSCW has 180 days to review the project once the application is deemed complete. The Commission chairperson can approve an additional 180 days to complete an extensive regulatory review process,” said ATC Regulatory Relations Manager Tom Malanowski. “We will continue to work with the PSCW and the WDNR in what we expect to be a year-long review. This will include public and technical hearings and an Environmental Impact Statement.”

The CPCN filing contains hundreds of pages of detailed analysis of the project. Data indicates the project would:
Provide an additional path for power into southwest Wisconsin during outages, which would enhance electric reliability for the area

Provide $23.5 million to $350.1 million in net economic benefits to Wisconsin electric consumers

Strengthen the electrical connection between Iowa and Wisconsin, which would ease grid congestion, increase competition to help provide lower-cost power to Wisconsin, and transfer additional low-cost wind energy into the state

Provide an outlet for approximately 25 gigawatts of wind resources in Iowa and areas west of Wisconsin and enable more than a dozen new wind facilities to fully interconnect to the electric system

“Investing in a robust transmission system is necessary for regional reliability, particularly in light of how the sources of electricity generation are changing.

Dairyland is committed to diversifying its generation portfolio with more renewable resources to benefit our electric cooperative members, and the ability to reliably transport that energy will be of great importance,” said Dairyland Vice President, Power Delivery Ben Porath. “This project will also help meet the electric needs of customers in the region and support stable energy prices by reducing grid congestion.”

If the project is approved, the PSCW will select one route and issue an order for it to be constructed. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources would then issue a utility permit for the project to be constructed.

“We appreciate the public’s active involvement since we announced the project in 2014 and we encourage anyone who is interested in the project to follow the regulatory review process,” said ITC Midwest Project Manager Aaron Curtis. “The PSCW will be evaluating the routes we submitted, including our preferred route. Approximately 95 percent of the preferred route in Wisconsin follows existing utility and highway corridors, which would minimize environmental impacts by building the line near where infrastructure already exists.”

Project construction would begin in 2020 to meet an in-service date of 2023 if the project is approved. An interactive map of the preferred and alternate route options and additional project information are available at www.cardinal-hickorycreek.com.