News Release

For Immediate Release                                                

 Contact:  Jim Cooper, Key Accounts & Marketing Mgr., Traverse City Light & Power

               Phone: (231) 932-4560 or E-mail: jcooper@tclp.org

Contact:  Phil Callighan, Sr. Account Executive, Knorr Marketing

   Phone: (231) 947-9707, ext. 207; Mobile: (231) 342-7590

               or E-mail: philc@knorrmarketing.com

L&P Exploring Options for Transmission Line

 (Traverse City, Michigan) — The Board of Directors for Traverse City Light & Power (www.tclp.org) Board has authorized L&P staff to hire a consulting firm and conduct a customer survey to explore undergrounding high voltage (138kV) electrical power transmission lines and discover whether or not customers are willing to pay for it.

            “At last week’s public information session, it was clear residents wanted to know if undergrounding transmission lines was a viable option instead of taller poles that were proposed to carry the lines,” said John Welch, Chairman of the L&P Board. “While L&P staff has experience undergrounding lower voltage lines, undergrounding these higher voltage transmission lines requires meeting other standards. We understand it is expensive and it takes special expertise, but we need more information on which to judge this option. Should it be feasible, once we have an estimate as to what it may cost, we will also be interested in knowing if customers are willing to pay extra for it.”

For technical and cost estimating assistance for high voltage line undergrounding, Light & Power (L&P) will be engaging R.W. Beck, a Seattle-headquartered firm founded

in 1942 that specializes in integrated business and engineering solutions across several industries, including electrical power transmission.   

Once estimated costs for undergrounding are learned, L&P plans to conduct a survey among a representative sampling of both residential and commercial customers. The goal of the survey will be to determine if customers are willing to pay extra for undergrounding of the high voltage transmission lines.

Last week (Dec. 6), the public was invited to an L&P Study Session at Willow Hill Elementary School that reviewed plans for upgrading Traverse City Light & Power’s transmission infrastructure to improve electrical service reliability. The existing transmission line to be upgraded is fifty years old and runs from Barney Road on the west side, down Wayne Hill to the “lighthouse” pole on Bay Street.

Traverse City Light & Power (www.tclp.org) is a community-owned, community-focused municipal utility that offers energy at low rates in the region to over 10,000 customers in Traverse City, and parts of Blair, East Bay, Elmwood, Garfield, Peninsula and Paradise townships.