Clean Line Energy Partners subsidiary Plains & Eastern Clean Line has received regulatory approval from Tennessee.
According to Clean Line, the Tennessee Regulatory Authority unanimously voted to approve the application of Plains & Eastern for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and to grant Plains & Eastern the authority to operate as a wholesale transmission-only public utility in Tennessee.
The Plains & Eastern Clean Line is an approximately 700-mile overhead, direct-current electric transmission project that will deliver wind energy from the Oklahoma Panhandle region to utilities and customers in Tennessee, Arkansas and other markets in the Mid-South and Southeast.
Clean Line says the proposed line would connect thousands of megawatts of new wind energy in the Oklahoma Panhandle with the increasing demand of utilities in the Mid-South and Southeast. Last year, Clean Line conducted an open solicitation for the proposed line and received interest from 15 potential customers totaling 17 GW – more than four times the capacity of the line.Â
Further, the Tennessee Valley Authority says that the Plains & Eastern Clean Line transmission project could be a valuable option to provide clean energy.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) needs to complete the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Based on the current schedule, Clean Line anticipates that DOE would issue a final EIS in 2015, which will consider and respond to comments received regarding the draft EIS. Construction is estimated to begin in 2016 and will require approximately two to three years to complete. The Plains & Eastern Clean Line is expected to begin delivering electricity as early as 2018, Clean Line notes.
