Grain Belt Express holds public meeting in Pittsfield

By Editor | February 22, 2022 |

By Carmen Ensinger

Grain Belt Express held the first of three public meetings in Pittsfield on Feb. 15 at the Pike County Senior Citizens Center to get public Input on the high voltage transmission line that will come through Pike County.

Grain Belt Express is a proposed long-distance transmission line that will carry more affordable, reliable power to consumers in Illinois and other states at no cost to Illinois consumers. This power will come mainly from wind sources in Kansas.

Robert Scott, Project Representative with Grain Belt, explained the project, which, actually, has been around and on the drawing board for almost a decade.
“This project has been around for quite a few years, I think it was first proposed around 2013-2015, but then it was owned by a company called Clean Line Energy,” Scott said. “Now, it is owned and being proposed by another company called Invenergy Transmission.”

Invenergy Transmission is an Illinois based company, based in Chicago that has been in business for around 20 years.

“They are the largest, privately held developer of renewable energy transmission and natural gas assets in the country,” Scott said. “So we are basically starting this process from the beginning again, which begins with these public meetings to get the public’s input on the proposed routes we have planned.”
Scott said that, per the Illinois Commerce Commission’s (ICC) rules, they must provide a primary and an alternate route for the transmission line.

“This line and route that we have here is substantially similar to what has been discussed for the last few years, but this is a new process and a new filing and we are sort of starting from point A to get public input,” Scott said. “Today, we have aerial maps of the land, GIS information and we are asking for landowners to give us their input on any changes that might have taken place since these maps were made that might help us improve or upgrade to avoid issues with our proposed route.”

While the previous project was approved by the ICC around 2015, Scott said there was a court ruling that identified a technicality in the law that overturned that approval.

The project stretches through the states of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana and had to be approved by each of those states.

The goal of the project is to provide a more affordable, reliable power connection to three of the largest energy grids in the country – PJM, MISO and SPP.
PJM is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the district of Columbia.
MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) is an independent, not-for-profit, member-based organization responsible for operating the power grid across 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba.

SPP (Southwest Power Pool) is based in Little Rock, Ark. and in 2019 expanded its services to encompass parts of 17 states.
Scott said this line is different than the power line one would see in their back yard.

“This line is a direct current (DC) high voltage line,” he said. “DC lines are designed to move power over a long distance because they lose less power than AC lines. Ever notice how you will see birds sitting on an AC line? That is because they are warm because the AC lines give off heat. The DC lines loses less of its electricity as heat.”

This DC line will be moving power from the west to the east – from southwest Kansas where there is an abundance of affordable wind energy to customers in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and the Eastern seaboard.

More importantly, this DC line can reverse the power as well, moving power from the east to the west should the need arise.

“While the primary purpose of the line is to move power west to east, that ability to reverse power means that across those three grids, you will have kind of a super highway of reliability backbone that lets us move power between those three giant grids when there is inclement weather in one of those grids,” Scott said. “So, if we were having an ice storm, and had to shut down some of our power generation, then we would be able to move power into this district or into one grid or another from other grides that might not be affected by this weather.”

The project has already received approval in Missouri, Kansas and Indiana and is only waiting for approval in Illinois.

“So, Illinois will be the final approval for the project,” Scott said. “Where we are at right now is we are trying to develop where we would put the line through so we will be back two more times for the public’s input. Then, in the summer we will file with the ICC for our approval, which will take about six months or so for review. The earliest construction could begin would be the end of 2023 or 2024.”

The ICC will choose the route the line will go. The primary route will go straight across the northern section of the county while the alternate route will start in the northern part of the county and dip down into the southern portion of the county before entering into Greene County.

Because the line is thicker, the poles it requires are much larger than those found on your typical AC lines.

Brad Pnazek, Vice President of Transmission Development, said there are two different types of poles which might be used on the project – the solid steel 10-foot diameter base pole and the 40×40 lattice tower with four posts in the ground.

“We are with the Department of Agriculture right now on an Agricultural Impact Agreement which is required for any large project,” Pnazek said. “It covers numerous requirements that will determine ultimately what structure we are allowed to use.”

The monopole structures can span 1,000 feet and the lattice towers can span up to 1,300 feet.

Grain Belt will pay landowners 110 percent of market value for easments on their property, plus additional payments for each structure on their property.
“We know the lattice tower structures have a bigger footprint so they have a bigger impact so the tower payment is bigger than for the monopoles,” Pnazek said. “The monopole payment is $6,000 per structure while the lattice is $18,000 per structure for a one-time upfront payment, or the landowner can choose an annual payment over the course of the project which would be $500 for the monopole plus an escalated payment of two percent or $1,500 plus the two percent for the lattice.”

Grain Belt Express will reimburse owners for agricultural impacts including compensating landowners for any crop revenue impacted by the line.

“Landowners will still have continued use of the land in the easement except for about the one percent where the pole is,” Scott said. “We are not purchasing anyone’s property – we are just doing an easement and owners will be compensated for that easement for any crop impact or agricultural impact on their land and they are given continued use of nearly all of the land.”

Good news for farmers with GPS units in their tractors – the DC lines won’t affect this equipment.

“A DC line does not cause some of the impacts to GPS units and precision agricultural equipment that farmers have noted and experienced with AC lines because of the electromagnetic field caused by the AC lines,” Scott said. “The DC lines cause a little bit different of a field by the nature of how the power is flowing. As for health concerns, the charge you get from a line like this is less than walking across your carpeting in winter.”

Grain Belt Express has gotten voluntary easements from 65 percent of the landowners in Kansas, Indiana and Missouri and continues to work with the remaining 35 percent to obtain voluntary easements.

“There is only one eminent domain case right now in Missouri,” Pnazek said. “Our hope is to try to negotiate the voluntary easement with all of the landowners. That is certainly our goal here in Illinois as well. To find out the specifics of their property and howe we can come to an agreement before we ever have to go down that path.”