American Transmission releases plan to improve grid, maintain assets

American Transmission Co. released Monday a 10-year plan for electric grid improvements that calls for a mix of new construction and continued maintenance of current infrastructure and assets.

The plan specifically calls for the spending of approximately $1.5 billion in asset maintenance, $300 million in regional projects, $500 million in network projects, and between $500 million and $1.1 billion in other capital expenditures.

Jim Vespalec, director of asset planning and engineering at the Wisconsin-based company, said these expenditures are necessary to maintain the company’s top performance in operations.

“Our long-range planning efforts assure the reliability that our customers depend on,” Vespalec said. “The expenditures in the 2018 plan reflect the measures necessary to maintain and improve electric reliability.”

ATC, the nation’s first multi-state transmission-only utility, owns and operates electric transmission system in portions of the Upper Midwest. The company was established in 2001 and has invested $4.5 billion in improving the reliability of its infrastructure. ATC has more than 9,600 miles of transmission lines and 554 substations.

“Long-term planning has always been a complex undertaking, but it was relatively consistent in the days of steady load growth and a stable generation mix,” Ron Snead, vice president of system planning at ATC, said. “Today’s world is much more dynamic. We anticipate more than 30 percent of the coal-fired generation in our service territory will be retired by the end of 2019. That requires agility and flexibility in working with our customers to reliably and efficiently meet their transmission needs.”