NIPSCO is involved in constructing two high-voltage power lines that could be key links in shipping electricity from Midwest wind farms to East Coast markets.
Construction should begin in early spring on a 100-mile line from Reynolds, in White County, to Topeka, in Amish country in LaGrange County. Construction would begin shortly after on a 65-mile line from Greentown, north of Indianapolis, to Reynolds.
As the nation starts to convert its electricity generation from coal to other sources, much of the power grid will have to be modified and in some cases reconfigured, according to NIPSCO spokesman Nick Meyer.
"Particularly in Indiana, a lot of the wind farms are having trouble getting power to market," Meyer said. "And these two lines will serve Indiana and the broader Midwest and help get some of the renewable power out East where there is a need for it."
The new lines also should increase the reliability of NIPSCO and other participating utilities' power grids in Indiana, Meyer said.
Superhighways made of wires
The Reynolds-Topeka line is solely a NIPSCO project. The Greentown-Reynolds line is being backed by NIPSCO as a joint project with Pioneer Transmission, which is a joint venture of Duke Energy and American Electric Power. Both of those companies operate in Indiana.
The two high-voltage transmission projects are among 17 multi-value projects approved in 2011 by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator. The grid operator coordinates power transmission within a 15-state footprint and one Canadian province.
The projects, mainly in the upper Midwest, are in effect "superhighways" for getting electricity from Point A to Point B, according to Andy Schonbrt, a spokesman for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.
"There will be a huge benefit to those projects coming online," Schnobrt said.
A 2014 study shows a net benefit of $13 billion to $49 billion for the region over 20 to 40 years, once all the projects are online. Savings come mainly in the area of relieving congestion and cutting fuel costs. But they also come from spurring more investment in wind farms.
The Reynolds-Topeka line will cost somewhere in the range of $250 million to $300 million. The Greentown-Reynolds line has an estimated price tag of $300 to $400 million, with NIPSCO's portion about $150 million to $200 million, according to its most recent forecast.
Utilities that provide high-voltage transmission make their money from tariffs charged to power producers to ship their electricity to markets where it is needed.
Ground-level relationships pay off
The NIPSCO projects have not spurred the kind of opposition some other high-voltage transmission lines have run into. Missouri regulators recently stopped the Grain Belt Express, which was to have run 750 miles from Kansas to Indiana, in its tracks. Missouri regulators had received 7,200 comments on the proposed project from the public, with most of them opposed.
Meyer attributes the success of the NIPSCO projects so far to the long time-frame set aside for holding public meetings and working with landowners. Both lines now have the required state approvals to build, with land acquisition nearly 100 percent complete for Reynolds-Topeka and about 60 percent complete for Greentown-Reynolds.
"The downfall for some projects is they try to steamroll the project through," he said. "We tried to talk to every resident, every landowner, every business, every farmer."
NIPSCO's long-established local relationships seem to have helped in that process, with both high-voltage lines running through territories that NIPSCO serves either with electricity or natural gas.
That doesn't mean no difficulties are encountered. The original timeline for the Reynolds-Topeka line anticipated construction starting in 2014 and the line in service by 2018. Construction is now expected to start next year, but the in-service date remains the same.
Some of the high-voltage line projects elsewhere that have fallen to public opposition have been undertaken by private power-line development companies that may have no track record in the region where they want to build.
Public open house meetings for the Reynolds-Topeka line were held as early as 2013. The subject drew wide interest but little opposition in LaGrange County, where the line connects to a key NIPSCO substation, according to LaGrange County Commission President Larry Miller.
"At that time it was just a learning process for everyone," Miller said. "They (the utility) were just trying to feel their way through to see if there was any opposition, and there really wasn't."
Although only two miles of the line will actually be located in LaGrange County, he said the lack of opposition seemed to be true in the area generally. He thinks the fact much of the line will run right alongside an existing transmission line also made it more palatable.
He said NIPSCO's assertion it will improve existing grid reliability also worked as a selling point.
"The demand (for electricity) just keeps growing," Miller said. "There's more residents and more factories in the community. Industry in LaGrange County is growing."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.