Transmission lines are a-coming
How we use electricity, and how much of it we use, is changing. How we generate electricity is also changing. And that means changes are afoot for our electricity grid.
Author: Ciaran Gallagher, Air and Energy Manager
The Old & The New
Close coal and start up solar and storage Wisconsin utilities We Energies and Alliant argue that retiring coal power plants must be replaced with methane gas generation, but a cleaner, more innovative path is possible. One utility in the Upper Midwest is going down that path. I recently visited a solar farm and battery storage
Move by Wisconsin’s electric grid operator exposes myth of gas plant dependability
Five years ago, gas power plants were considered consistently dependable and ready to provide power whenever we needed it. But then the 2021 winter storm in Texas, followed by the 2022 winter storm across the Midwest, upended those assumptions. Now, grid operators and federal regulators are grappling with how to reflect the changed expectations. Wisconsin’s
Rethinking Reliability: Winter storms expose myth of reliable natural gas
This was an unusual winter for Wisconsin with less snow and higher temps than average, but two weeks of brutal cold in January raised concerns about energy reliability. In the U.S., there have been five severe weather events in the past 11 years that have affected our electricity grid, at times causing dangerous, widespread blackouts
Transmission lines help fund key infrastructure and services in rural communities
What do broadband access, flood repairs and well water testing have in common? They have all been funded by the environmental impact fee from large transmission lines in rural Wisconsin communities. Building more transmission lines—the poles and wires that transport electricity from where it is generated to where it is used—will be necessary for Wisconsin
Support A Clean Way to Move Energy
As seen in the Wisconsin State Journal We may hardly notice the delivery of fossil fuels until disaster strikes. A gasoline tanker overturned in Pennsylvania in November. A pipeline spilled 600,000 gallons of oil in Kansas in December. A freight train carrying coal derailed in Nebraska in February. These events put people in danger,
