SOO Green high voltage underground power line seeks franchise agreement to pass through Charles City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A high voltage underground energy transmission project is seeking a franchise agreement with Charles City to pass through the community on existing railroad right of way.

The SOO Green Line is proposing to bury two 525-kilovolt direct current lines across north Iowa and into Illinois, stretching from just west of Mason City to the Plano, Illinois, area, to transfer energy from renewable energy projects in the Midwest to Eastern markets.

The 360-mile line would be buried almost entirely on existing Canadian Pacific Railroad right of way. It would cross Floyd County from Nora Springs, through Rudd and Charles City and exit the county just north of Highway 18. The line would be about 220 miles in Iowa, and about 2½ miles through Charles City.

Raj Rajan, an environmental engineer who is the vice president of product development for the SOO Green HVDC Link ProjectCo., was at a Charles City Council meeting recently, explaining the $4.5 billion project and talking with council members about the first proposed 25-year franchise agreement.

The line will go through 24 municipalities, and so far 15 of them have approved franchise agreements, he said.

Because it uses existing railroad right of way, “right off the bat it tackles the question of site control without relying on eminent domain and taking away productive agricultural land,” Rajan said, adding that has been a big challenge with power transportation projects in the past.

City Council member DeLaine Freeseman asked how much danger there would be from the line, which Rajan said would carry 2,100 megawatts of electricity – or enough to power 1.2 million to 1.5 million homes.

“Really, none,” Rajan said. Because the power is direct current and it’s underground it does not induce currents, produce ionized particles or generate significant magnetic fields.

The franchise application packet sent to the Charles City Council included environmental safety impact testimony that says the direct current underground line will not cause “stray voltage” problems like can occur with alternating current, will not cause audible noise, or interfere with satellite, radio, GPS or wireless communications.

The 5-inch-thick cables will be buried at least 5 feet underground – sometimes much deeper – and will be insulated and shielded and contained in 8-inch PVC conduits, Rajan said.

“The cable that we are using is what’s called submarine-grade cable,” he said, and is the same cable used to run across the ocean floor.

At full current flow the magnetic field would be like a hair dryer or vacuum cleaner, he said.

The railroads are very particular about any electrical currents near their tracks, because they can disrupt communications, and they have approved the SOO Green plans, he said.

The SOO Green line would transfer power from the Midwestern Grid to the Northeastern Grid, but the power could also flow the other way if something like an extreme weather event required more power for the Midwest.

“It’s not specifically dedicated to individual wind farms,” Rajan said. “It can take any power that gets delivered to the substation in Mason City from the grid, so it may theoretically take power all the way from North Dakota, South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, or anywhere in Iowa. But most of the power will obviously come from regions where there is an abundance of generation.”

Just as Iowa can grow and export commodities to help feed the country, it can produce wind energy more efficiently than other states so it can export that as well, Rajan said.

“We have a wind corridor that no other region in the contiguous lower 48 states can compete with, and that’s why we can generate power at a much lower cost,” he said.

SOO Green is a merchant project, he said, meaning that Iowa utility users will not pay for it. The companies that use the line will pay for it, “like a toll highway for electricity.”

Because there are no purchasers of the electricity in Floyd County or Charles City, there won’t be any actual franchise fees paid, but property taxes will amount to about $4.1 million total in Floyd County over the first 25-year franchise agreement.

About $1.6 million of that will go to the county, a little over $1 million to the Charles City School District, a little less than $1 million to the other school districts in the county, about $250,000 to Charles City and the rest to the other municipalities over 25 years, Rajan estimated.

The 25-year franchise agreement will probably be renewed at least once, because the project has a minimum useful life of 50 years. But based on similar projects that have been done in Europe and East Asia, the actual useful life is more like 80 years, he said.

The Iowa Utilities Commission (then the Iowa Utilities Board) approved the SOO green project in Iowa on Sept. 13.

Iowa law requires municipalities to act on franchise agreement requests within 90 days of receiving them, Rajan said, and Charles City Administrator Steve Diers said the request was officially received July 18. A public hearing will need to be held before the City Council can act on the franchise agreement request.

City Attorney Brad Sloter said he will work with the SOO Green attorneys and suggest some changes with the proposed agreement, then bring it back to the City Council for review.