Power from the Prairie

Power from the Prairie (PftP) is a proposed, nominal 4,000 Megawatt (MW) high voltage direct current (HVDC) electric transmission line.  Its purpose is to facilitate the integration of massive quantities of new renewable energy (wind and solar) into the grid, to reliably and economically enable higher levels of renewable energy than would otherwise be possible, and to support jobs and economic development in the states it touches.

 

As proposed by Power from the Prairie LLC, the line would extend from the wind energy fields of Southern Wyoming, crossing either South Dakota or Nebraska, to the wind fields of Northwestern Iowa (Figure 1). It would feature a DC/AC/DC convertor station in the middle, which would enable interconnection of thousands of MW of new renewable energy sources in some of the best wind energy regimes in the nation. This resource is currently landlocked and unavailable due to lack of transmission and access to markets.

 

FIGURE 1: Power from the Prairie Concept

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When operated in coordination with other, similar proposed HVDC lines including the TransWest  Express (http://www.transwestexpress.net) and Soo Green (https://www.soogreenrr.com) and existing HVDC lines from California to Utah, PftP will uniquely enable bi-directional interregional swaps of renewable energy from California to Chicago and Eastward.  (Figure 2). 

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Not limited to Power from the Prairie project, the same concept of bi-directional swaps should also apply to other proposed HVDC transmission projects elsewhere in the U.S. (Figure 2).

 

FIGURE 2: The Future of Bi-Directional Renewable Energy Swaps

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​Because the customer loads and renewable resources in these regions have time diversity between them (that is, they do not all happen at the same time), such swaps will enable multiple regions to reliably and cost-effectively achieve higher levels of renewable energy than they can using their local renewable energy sources alone.

 

The project could also include long-duration, grid-level energy storage such as the proposed Gregory County pumped storage hydro project in South Dakota (1,200 MW, 26 hours duration), or compressed air energy storage (CAES) in Utah (1,200 MW, 48 hours of duration), or green hydrogen storage in Utah. (Figure 1), if found to be incrementally beneficial in addition to the HVDC lines alone.