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September/October 2009

RELIABILITY

AMERICAN TRANSMISSION COMPANY

“Construction was the easy part,” jokes Pete Holtz, the project manager who brought American Transmission Company’s 220-mile 345-KV transmission line in service in January 2008. “Getting to that stage was not for the faint of heart.”

The reason? Little transmission system infrastructure had been built in the region—or in the nation—in the previous 25 years. And in contrast to today’s current events, electric transmission was seldom featured in the news. The single, 345-KV line (Arpin-Eau Claire-King) that linked Wisconsin to neighboring transmission systems to the west was the second-most constrained line in the United States. An additional link to the west was desperately needed, but it took 10 years—7 years of permitting—to take Arrowhead-Weston from concept to completion.

Planning for the project began with Minnesota Power and Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) in 1998.

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  © 2009 Edison Electric Institute. All rights reserved.