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Jefferson County Projects Would Improve Electric Power

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 15:01 CDT

Two energy projects proposed Tuesday are designed to improve the reliability and efficiency of electric power delivery in fast- growing Jefferson County.

American Transmission Co., the Pewaukee company that owns and runs major power lines in eastern Wisconsin, proposed a $21 million to $22 million project, a 15-mile power line through Lake Mills that would run from the Town of Jefferson to the Town of Waterloo.

The project is needed to prevent power failures forecast in 2008, the company says in a filing.

If approved, the 168,000-volt line would be built in 2006.

Jefferson County, whose population has grown 14% since 1990, is a key area for shoring up power reliability, partly because it is between two population centers that are home to two different utilities, according to Maripat Blankenheim, an ATC spokeswoman.

"It's the next area that's really starting to get built up," she said.

The company started evaluating a project in the Lake Mills area two years ago.

As it began making plans, the company learned that three subdivisions were in the planning stages for farmland that it was considering for the power line, Blankenheim said.

Separately, We Energies of Milwaukee proposed a $22 million project to improve the efficiency of a natural gas-fired power plant in Watertown in Jefferson County.

The project for the Concord Generating Station involves installing higher-efficiency turbine parts and blades on two of the four combustion turbines at the plant.

The project would increase the company's generating capacity by about 12 megawatts by June, We Energies said.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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