EIS Sought For Hollydale Power Line Project

The process to put in a new power line in Plymouth continues.

The Hollydale power line proposal includes work between two well known companies, Great River Energy and Xcel Energy and could affect hundreds of Plymouth residents.

The proposal is to upgrade power lines stretching from part of Medina to northwest Plymouth and add a new substation. The hope is for the project to provide increased distribution capacity for the Plymouth and Medina area.

The energy companies say the project is needed to address electric distribution concerns and to avoid feeder circuit overloads in the Plymouth area distribution delivery system.

The project includes rebuilding about eight miles of existing 69 kilovolt (kV) transmission line to 115kV, constructing almost a mile of new 115 kV transmission line and building a new 115 kV substation, which would be called the Pomerleau Lake Substation. Great River Energy would modify its Medina Substation for the Hollydale project.

According to the city of Plymouth's website:

Xcel and Great River have asked the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to consider changing the type of permitting process being used for the pending Hollydale 115 kV transmission line project. The companies have submitted a petition requesting that the PUC authorize converting the Hollydale project review from the alternative permitting process to the full permitting process.
 
This issue will likely be considered by the PUC near the end of March or early April, according to Scott Ek of the Minnesota Department of Commerce (DOC). A notice will go out to residents who have signed up to be on the DOC project mailing list.  
 
If the PUC authorizes a conversion to the full process, the review schedule would be extended. The schedule would include time to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS), a draft EIS public meeting and a contested case hearing, according to Ek.

An EIS has been something many Plymouth residents have said they wanted to see happen. and others met at Wayzata High School to discuss the Hollydale project, its implications and creating a petition that would be a united way to inform the PUC and businesses involved in the proposed power line project.