Iberdrola: "Let's experiment on Maine"

The primary reason for the $1.4 billion upgrade is so that wind farms can transport their electrons from disfigured Maine mountains to Mass and Ct. where they can power giant screen TV's and air conditioned McMansions when nobody's home. Great.

Yet when this project was "sold in" to us, it was done so under the entirely false pretense of aging lines. See:

"Central Maine Power wants to replace aging lines"

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/GJNEWS_0...

They take us for fools.

If the building of useless wind farms at the expense of Mainers and Maine, facilitated by our Governor and the insiders is the crime, the accompanying mega transmission they require to get their electrons out of state is the getaway car. And guess who pays for it.

CEO tells AP wind investors need stable policies

By Associated Press
Monday, September 27, 2010
Spanish power utility Iberdrola SA is investing $10 billion in wind power and energy-related projects across the U.S. over the next few years, but political and regulatory uncertainties could stall future investments, the company’s chairman and CEO said Tuesday.
Ignacio Galan, who is in New England for the groundbreaking of a major power grid upgrade in Maine, said wind energy projects have created thousands of jobs in the U.S., and renewable energy companies will continue making long-term investments if they get stability from regulators.
"The industry can’t move forward without predictability," Galan told The Associated Press.
To continue to grow, Iberdrola needs to know whether federal grants for renewable energy will be extended beyond 2012, and whether the government will establish targets for renewable energy that will help companies like Iberdrola plan for future investments, Galan said.
A climate bill remained stalled in Congress and future spending on renewable energy remains in doubt.
Iberdrola, the nation’s second-largest wind power company, plans to spend $6.7 billion on wind power projects in the U.S. through 2012.
Iberdrola currently has 4,163 megawatts of wind power installed in the U.S. — taking into account wind’s variability, that’s enough to light about 1.2 million homes — and there are 25,000 megawatts of additional wind projects in the pipeline, Galan said.
In the U.S., Iberdrola’s wind power projects are run through Oregon-based Iberdrola Renewables. Transmission companies like Central Maine Power are part of Iberdrola USA. Combined, Iberdrola employs 7,000 people in the U.S.
On Tuesday, Galan will be joined by Maine Gov. John Baldacci and officials from Central Maine Power for the formal groundbreaking on a $1.4 billion power grid upgrade aimed at ensuring future reliability, while also opening the door to future wind power projects.
CMP plans to double the capacity of the grid’s backbone in Maine with a new transmission line from Orrington to Eliot. All told, the Maine improvements include 500 miles of new and upgraded high-voltage lines, as well as five new substations.
Iberdrola will pay for the improvements, about half with cash and the rest through borrowing. The money will be recouped from New England electric ratepayers.
The project will allow more electricity to flow from Canada into New England, and beef up the power grid in Maine to accommodate wind farms that might be built in the future. It also will create up to 3,000 construction jobs, Galan said.
CMP is also preparing to provide 620,000 so-called smart meters to customers by early 2012, taking a first step toward a smart grid by allowing consumers to monitor their power consumption. The system will allow CMP to eliminate meter readers and to better monitor power outages.
Using wireless communication, smart meters will allow CMP to monitor problems from its headquarters and will provide line workers with more information when they’re dispatched.
The $200 million cost is being equally shared by Iberdrola and the federal government.
Iberdrola and CMP officials believe the combination of smart grid technology and wind power make the state an ideal place for a pilot program for future technologies.
"Maine is a place where you have a scale to experiment and see what works," said John Carroll, a CMP spokesman.
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Comment by MaineHiker on December 26, 2011 at 6:51pm

POST THIS! Iberdrola is not welcome in Maine. It should take Baldacci back to Spain and experiment on him there. Keep your power lines and wind projects out of this state. You are not wanted.

Comment by MaineHiker on December 26, 2011 at 6:44pm

Take Balacci to Spain and experiment on him!

Comment by Linda Miller on September 29, 2010 at 6:45am
Sure! Use Maine to experiment on and destroy our wilderness with useless wind turbines and ugly transmission lines. Does the wind not blow in Massachusetts and Connecticut?

Although the smart meters will be good in many respects, they will also put the meter readers out of jobs at a time when we can least afford to have that happen.

U.S. Sen Angus King

THE UNTOLD STORY OF RECORD HILL WIND

The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind, continued

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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