The Green Power Express is a set of transmission expansions developed by ITC that would allow the significant wind resources naturally abundant in the Midwest region to be developed and integrated into the electric grid. This project, first conceptualized almost a year ago, will create a network of 765 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines that form a high-voltage electric highway that will serve the region's growing demand for clean energy in the near term and provide the infrastructure to foster more efficient development of electric resources in the future. ITC estimates that approximately 12,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the high capacity and consistent wind areas will be enabled through the construction of the Green Power Express.

The Green Power Express is sorely needed because the region lacks the electric transmission backbone needed to efficiently integrate vast amounts of wind energy. The existing system was not designed to support the broader regional transfer capability required to meet renewable portfolio standards implemented in many states. This project will help alleviate the bottleneck of generator interconnection requests at the Midwest ISO, many of which are for new wind resources, by providing an outlet for generation developers to get their power to homes and businesses across the region.

ITC's newly created limited partnership Green Power Express LP filed what is known as a Federal Power Act Section 205 application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting approval of a rate and incentives for the construction of the Green Power Express including the approval of a regulatory asset for recovery of development expenses which will allow ITC to continue development efforts for the Green Power Express.

Green Power Express LP is a newly created limited partnership, the general partner of which is ITC Green Power Express LLC, whose purpose is to focus on the development of the Green Power Express.

The Green Power Express as developed by ITC's planning engineers includes approximately 3,000 miles of new 765 kV transmission infrastructure and will traverse portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and likely into Indiana. 765 kV technology was chosen because it provides a long-term solution for the most efficient delivery of wind power to the demand centers in the region while having fewer land use impacts than lower voltage "band-aid" approaches. The project is still in the development stage so further studies could refine the actual location of facilities needed.

DC is a good technology solution, if used in the proper application and setting; however, in the development of the Green Power Express, DC was never seriously considered because of its fundamental limitations expected under the current configuration. The Green Power Express was designed to be an extra high-voltage backbone that would gather the wind from the disparate areas within the abundant region and transport it eastward. DC, on the other hand, generally is used to deliver energy from point A to point B with little opportunity for intermediate on-ramps and off-ramps. As such, DC would result in less flexibility for integrating wind generation onto the system and getting the wind power off the system when delivering wind to load. DC lines do not allow for easy redirection of power in the case of a line outage and therefore, at this point, a DC solution would make the system vulnerable from a reliability standpoint. In short, DC transmission is not the appropriate first-step to move power in the area covered by the Green Power Express.

The Green Power Express will require wide support, not only by regulators but also by local utilities and wind developers in order to move this project forward and realize the vast benefits of this project. As such, ITC has already begun developing partnerships with local utilities and will announce them as they are solidified.

ITC is still working to solidify the partnerships and plans to announce them as they are agreed upon. Local utilities and wind developers that have already expressed their support for the Green Power Express include: NorthWestern Energy (NYSE: NWE), NextEra Energy (formerly FPLE), Iberdrola Renewables, MDU Resources, Generation Energy Inc., Montgomery Power Partners, Denali Energy, National Wind, Crownbutte Wind Power, Wind Capital Group and RES Americas.

The Green Power Express is a project that has been in development for almost a year prior to the announcement of the creation of the UMTDI. ITC was very pleased to see the creation of the UMTDI and finds that the Green Power Express is consistent with their stated goals and objectives. We support UMTDI's focus on the need for a more robust transmission system to support the integration of wind energy resources. ITC believes that by bringing forward this proposal it will enable the UMRDI to more quickly complete its important work. ITC looks forward to continuing to work with the UMTDI and other stakeholders to advance the Green Power Express.

Construction will start once all of the related studies have been completed, regulatory approvals have been received and the detailed routing of the project has been completed and approved as appropriate. Due to the size and scope of this project along with the various state and federal approvals that will be required, ITC is aggressively targeting to have the Green Power Express in service by 2020.

Cost allocation for this project has not yet been determined since this type of project is not clearly addressed by existing RTO tariff provisions. A solution will require the involvement of the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (Midwest ISO), transmission customers, other stakeholders and the FERC. It is ITC's expectation that a fair method that appropriately identifies the project benefits and allocates the cost accordingly will be developed and submitted to FERC for approval. ITC has not yet determined the details of the rate provisions it will seek from the FERC, although a formulaic approach will likely be used, consistent with ITC's other MISO rates

Yes, concurrent with the application to FERC, ITC also submitted the Green Power Express to the Midwest ISO for inclusion in the MTEP under Appendix C.

The recent filing at FERC is the first of several that ITC anticipates making on behalf of the Green Power Express. Following these approvals, ITC will initiate activities to obtain all necessary state approvals for the first stages of this project.