Plains & Eastern Clean Line was a proposed 720-mile (1,160 km), 4,000 MW long-distance HVDC transmission line to bring wind power in Oklahoma to consumers in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States via the existing Tennessee Valley Authority grid.[1][2][3] It would have termini at Guymon, Oklahoma and northeast of Memphis, Tennessee and an intermediate converter station in Pope County, Arkansas.[3] The U.S. Department of Energy is a partner in the development, its first exercise of section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, under which Congress authorized the department to promote electric transmission for clean energy.[4] The project has been credited with bringing renewable energy to part of the country that previously had not had access.[5]
The HVDC line to be built by a division of General Electric has been called the beginning of a North American super grid.[1]
In late December 2017, Clean Line announced the sale of the Oklahoma portion of the Plains and Eastern to NextEra. The sale consisted of a transfer of right-of-way easements to NextEra. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy assailed TVA for killing the project.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Fialka, John (November 2, 2016), "Huge Transmission Line Will Send Oklahoma Wind Power to Tennessee: High-voltage, direct-current lines could become the backbone of a U.S. supergrid", Scientific American
- ^ "Electricity now flows across continents, courtesy of direct current", The Economist, January 14, 2017
- ^ a b Maps and location, Clean Line Energy Partners, March 2016
- ^ Plains & Eastern Clean Line Transmission Line, United States Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability, March 25, 2016, retrieved 2017-02-10
- ^ "Clean Line". official website. Center for Rural Affairs. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
- ^ "Environmentalists blast TVA for killing major wind project". timesfreepress.com. 31 December 2017.