Dominion Resources asks for delay of Atlantic Wind Connection right of way request

[FogerRox]

By Todd Griset
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is currently considering whether to grant a right-of-way along the outer continental shelf to the Atlantic Wind Connection, a proposed undersea transmission network along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast.
Last year, Atlantic Grid Holdings LLC applied to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) seeking a right-of-way across the outer continental shelf offshore New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. If it receives the right-of-way, the company proposes to use it to deploy about 800 miles of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines.
...
Among these comments was a request by Virginia-based energy and utility company Dominion Resources, Inc. that BOEM suspend its consideration of the Atlantic Wind Connection’s right-of-way request. Dominion argued that BOEM’s request for competitive interest in the area identified by the line’s developer was premature, particularly for the later project phases to be developed off Virginia.
To support this argument, Dominion raised a series of issues focusing on the timing of the offshore transmission line process, both with respect to interconnecting with the mainland transmission grid and with respect to the ultimate development of offshore wind generation capacity. Chief among these was Dominion’s observation that the transmission project has not yet been approved for inclusion in the mid-Atlantic regional transmission organization’s plans for transmission expansion.
http://offshorewindwire.com/2012/03/09/analysis-aw-dominions-comments/

Atlantic Wind Connection CEO Robert Mitchell said he was not surprised by Chapman's comments. He noted that Dominion, the state's dominant electricity provider, plans to bid on the lease areas off Virginia's coast. It is also studying how to build a transmission line that would connect to a substation it owns in Virginia Beach.

"They like to do everything themselves," Mitchell said. "It's just in their DNA."

Atlantic Wind Connection is led by Maryland-based Trans-Elect Development Co. Investors include Google Energy, a subsidiary of the Internet giant, New York-based private equity firm Good Energies and the Japanese trading company Marubeni Corp.

http://articles.dailypress.com/2012-03-02/news/dp-nws-dominion-power-wind-20120302_1_trans-elect-development-offshore-wind-wind-turbines

Atlantic Wind Connection, 350 mile undersea HVDC trunkline, to support 7kMw offshore wind project
Posted by FogerRox in General Discussion
Wed Aug 10th 2011, 02:48 PM
The Atlantic Wind Connection is a supergrid transmission project that starts with a 5.5 billion dollar HVDC offshore trunkline, stretching from from central New Jersey to Southern Virginia. Capable of a 6-7 gigawatt capacity, the undersea supergrid project is led by independent transmission company Trans-Elect, CEO Bob Mitchell hopes to accelerate wind power development by building the 350 mile long supergrid backbone to attract wind turbine installers.



The eastern seaboard has terrific potential for offshore wind. With more than 60,000 MW of offshore wind potential in the relatively shallow waters off the continental shelf. The HVDC backbone of the AWC will be 15-18 miles offshore, have a limited number of landfall points, lessening environmental impact and keeping wind turbines out of sight.


The Google backed project plans to take advantage of the relatively shallow waters of the continental shelf to install HVDC cables that can initially support 7,000 Mw of generation.

The AWC backbone is critical to more rapidly scaling up offshore wind because without it, offshore wind developers would be forced to build individual radial transmission lines from each offshore wind project to the shore, requiring additional time consuming permitting and environmental studies and making balancing the grid more difficult. As those in the Northeast remember from the 2003 blackout, transmission is severely overstretched on the east coast.

From
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/FogerRox/58

[kristopher]

1. Dominion = fossil and nuclear generation

Generation Mix

46 percent of Dominion's total electric production comes from coal, 41 percent comes from nuclear power, 9 percent comes from natural gas, 1 percent comes from oil, and the remaining 3 percent comes from Hydro and other renewables. Renewable energy sources, primarily wind and biomass, and conservation and efficiency programs will play an increasingly important role in meeting future energy needs and minimizing the company’s environmental footprint.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Resources

Anything to stop or delay offshore wind...


Good post BTW.

[FogerRox]

2. Thanks. I dig the AWC proposal

Its well thought and shows corp capital is starting to flow to great large scale renewable projects.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Not surprising given their plans in the area

Dominion interested in Va offshore wind generation

Dominion Virginia Power is telling the federal government that it's interested in leasing areas off the coast of Virginia to develop wind energy.

The state's largest electric provider, which is part of Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources Inc., filed comments Monday with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. It formally expressed its interest in offshore wind generation in what could be a powerful message for a slowly emerging domestic source of clean energy.
...
Dominion expressed its interest in the entire 113,000 acres the government is making available about 24 miles off the Virginia coast. The company said the leases have the potential of generating between 1,500 and 2,000 megawatts of electricity, enough energy to power 500,000 households.
...
Dominion, with about 2.3 million customers in Virginia, has a $500,000 Department of Energy grant to study approaches to bring down the costs of offshore wind development, including turbine designs and other new technologies.

[FogerRox]

4. I think the Feds like AWC proposal

It only makes landfall at 4 locations, they probably dont want willy nilly small projects being approved, that can double or triple the landfall points.

AWC parent company is a utility operator, they dont generate. I think from the Governments point of view Dominion may not be capable of building the HVDC infrastructure that might cost 2 billion, and thusly see Dominion as a whiner, and dismiss their so called objections.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. I don't think the landfall points are the issue...

...as much as the easements for transmission, and I assume the off-shore connects.

The annoying thing is that none of this is a technical consideration, it's just lawyer food.

[FogerRox]

6. In the sense that landfall points must be

where the offshore HVDC connects to the grid. Lawyer food - right.

[kristopher]

7. They would rather obstruct it than develop it

The economics of wide-scale wind deployment are what shuts down large scale centralized thermal, which is what Dominion is all about. They know that.

If they can't stop offshore wind I'm sure they will try to get a piece of it, but that's their fallback position - they would much rather build another coal plant with confidence that the economics of their investment will not be destroyed by competition.