Alliant Energy

In an extension of a conversation that began at D-Tech Reliability and Resiliency twenty twenty-six in Chicago, Illinois, I'll lead a discussion alongside Emma Heinz, Policy Principal at Advanced Energy United, about what it takes to scale virtual power plants and other DER programs.

The conversation, featuring Bart Jackson of Sunrun, Energy Hub's Maxwell Berkscholl, and Carrie Gehrke at Alliant Energy.

Yeah, it's the same last name as me.

She spells it differently, though.

Proud, proud to keep the H.

Uh, hi.

Uh, Carrie Gehrke with Alliant Energy.

I'm the Senior Manager of Customer Load Management.

And so as a city, we needed to do our due diligence on what were our capacities from a natural resource standpoint.

The power company Alliant Energy actually owned that property, which is an interesting relationship.

They actually... own that property and they would be servicing it as a utility.

So everyone had to do their due diligence to make sure that we had the capacity to satisfy us and the existing users that we had here, as well as certainly, you know, give the company's comfort to know that we could handle it.

So we are the largest independent, so transmission-only electric provider.

And in 2007, we purchased the transmission system from Alliant Energy.

And part of the transaction or that sale with the Iowa Utility Board at the time was that we needed to make the system and invest in the system to improve reliability.

And so we've done that since 2007, put $5.8 billion into the backbone of mostly Iowa, but also Southern Minnesota.

Then it requires transmission to take that generation from where it's being generated to where it is needed.

And then you need the distribution system to take it off the highway, off the large power lines that we focus on, and take it down to each individual business or to your household, to your communities.

So in our instance with Alliant Energy, it takes both of us because they do generation and distribution and we do transmission, but we also have 189 other connected customers.

So we have solar farms, wind farms, obviously independent power producers that are connected to our grid, but we're also connected to the rural electric cooperatives and municipalities across the state.

These are coal plants that we were promised that would be closed and these are communities that have been bearing the brunt of this coal plant pollution.

And here we are seeing our investor-owned utilities, this one is Alliant Energy, continue to break the promises and just continue this toxic pollution on communities across Wisconsin.

Yeah.

So for folks who may not be familiar with the Columbia Energy Center, can you give us the quick background? Where is it? Who owns it? And what was supposed to happen?

Yeah, so this is one of the coal plants that is still online in Wisconsin.

We have four and two with Alliant Energy.

This one's in Marathon County.

It was supposed to be closed, I believe, in 2028, and then it was delayed, and then now...

IPR's Eliza Billingham reports.

When the energy center lost its contract with Alliant Energy and suffered damage from the derecho, it closed in twenty twenty.

US Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly says recommissioning Duane Arnold is part of the Trump administration's plan for an American nuclear renaissance.

But most importantly, the value of Duane Arnold is for Iowa and the people of Linn County.

Now, the transmission company, high voltage transmission, 345 kilovolt line is going to come from Cedar Rapids into Clinton, providing us, A, with a tremendous amount of capacity, which for those that don't know, we struggle with that right now, given the amount of access we have to the power grid.

So 345 kilovolt line comes in through ITC Midwest, and then that steps down to the distribution provider, which is Alliant Energy.

which then ultimately supplies you with your power.

Now, they're, again, a privately held utility.

Yeah.

So here's how it works.

We come into a community like Clinton and we say, hey, Alliant Energy, you're going to be our partner here.

And ITC is also our partner here.

So where it might be one decibel in the center of town and another decibel in the residential areas...

Alliant Energy.

Thank you, Biden Prison.

I appreciate that.