Plains and Eastern Clean Line LLC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to identify the benefits that high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission projects may have and to explore non-discriminatory methods for TVA to utilize independent transmission as a means to improve system reliability, increase resource flexibility and enhance the potential for the integration of renewables.
Clean Line Energy Partners LLC, Plains and Eastern Clean Line's parent company, says this new MOU takes the company one step closer to bringing low-cost clean energy to consumers across the Mid-South and Southeast regions of the U.S.
According to Clean Line, the transmission-line project will help position Memphis, Tenn., as a hub for clean energy distribution in the Southeast by delivering clean energy from western Oklahoma, southwest Kansas and the Texas Panhandle to TVA, Arkansas and other eastern markets.
The project will consist of approximately 800 miles of overhead HVDC transmission lines that will allow TVA, Arkansas and other eastern markets to receive more than 7 GW of new clean energy from the Great Plains, according to Clean Line.
The MOU outlines that TVA will continue to perform collaborative and/or independent technical wind integration studies to support the identification and quantification of the benefits to TVA from the Plains & Eastern Clean Line. The agreement also notes that TVA and Clean Line will conduct studies to identify the benefits of HVDC to TVA.
Support is growing for HVDC lines to deliver clean energy throughout Memphis and the Southeast, Clean Line notes. For instance, the Memphis, Light, Gas and Water Division board of commissioners recently passed a resolution unanimously in support of the development and implementation of clean energy transported by HVDC transmission to western Tennessee.
