About a year ago, I wrote about the Minnesota-Iowa transmission line. It's one of several projects in the Midwest to improve the electric grid and provide new inroads for renewable energy.
Known as Multi-Value Projects (MVPs), these new lines are designed to improve reliability and efficiency. They will allow new renewable energy to connect to the transmission system with greater ease.
One of the major hurdles for new projects is getting the energy from where it is produced to the consumer who will use it. As we add more renewable energy, we also need to update our transmission system. Otherwise renewable projects hit a bottleneck before the energy reaches the end user.
Last year, developers of the Minnesota-Iowa transmission line held several meetings in Minnesota to collect input. They presented information on the project to community members and landowners, and received feedback on the potential route.
That feedback was very important. Developers use the information from these meetings to reevaluate their plans and make changes accordingly. Because transmission projects are so big, having a local perspective goes a long way in making improvements.
With construction about to begin on the Minnesota-Iowa project, looking back on the process is a good reminder that it takes a lot of steps to get to this point, and public input is one of the most important.
To learn more about this or other transmission projects, you can visit our Clean Energy Transmission Map.
