MidAmerican Energy completes transmission line

     MidAmerican Energy Company completed it’s Multi-Value Project 4, 345-kilovolt transmission line in Franklin County last month. The 71-miles line spans across northeast Iowa, from Hampton, to east of Waterloo.
     Ashton Hockman, media relations representative with MidAmerican, said that the construction of the new line was with the intent to update energy infrastructure, increasing the reliability of the grid. Hockman said that energy use has increased over the last several years, requiring more power on the current grids that can’t support the usage. The new line will allow for more power usage and sourcing.
     With wind facility projects being started across the state, a larger grid is needed for optimum wind farm performance. Without a large enough grid to dump power from wind from, renewable energy companies can’t make energy.
     As power companies will both feed off of and supply the grid with power, a fee for such companies will not be charged. Hockman said that MidAmerican is part of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), a regional agency that oversees energy production in Iowa and approximately one dozen other states. In 2011, MISO had a plan approved that would contain 17 projects of transmission lines. MidAmerican aided in some of these projects.