Market Access

RPMA Wind attributes its success to develop and construct wind farms in Iowa to its ability to select wind farm locations that not only have good wind to make projects economically viable but also allow easy access to the grid in a timely fashion so that its clients can meet certain state mandates or certain Federal tax incentive deadlines.  The top map shows RPMA Wind’s projects in reference to good winds in Iowa.  The bottom map shows RPMA Wind’s projects in reference to the project’s ability to get easily interconnected.

How long it takes to go through the Midwest ISO Interconnection Process depends on location (point of interconnection), project size (megawatts of new generation) and available transmission capacity (“ATC”).  If ATC is available and a project is located correctly and sized right, the project will get through the MISO Interconnect Process fairly quickly (about 2 years).  If the project is located incorrectly or sized wrong so there is limited or no ATC, then the grid will need to be upgraded and hence the project will take about 3 to 5 or more years to get through the MISO Interconnect Process.

The Contour map below shows the current Midwest ISO estimates of how long it takes to go through the interconnection process based on location and ATC.  This map is constantly changing as more projects are built and new requests enter the queue.  When RPMA Wind located its first tier of projects (1 through 3) from 2000 to 2006, its projects were in green and yellow locations with good ATC.  It took two years or less to connect those projects and all are now in operation.  As these wind farms and some other new wind farms in the area started operating the ATC was reduced, resulting in red color, which means it now takes more than 5 years to connect a new project in that location.  The area will stay red until new transmission upgrades are built.

RPMA Wind’s next tier of projects (4 through 10) were queued in 2008.  Two years ago those project areas appeared as green and yellow zones on the contour map.  RPMA Wind’s projects were sized and located to take advantage of the existing ATC.   Again, RPMA Wind’s projects are taking only 2 years to get through the MISO Interconnect Process and thus are some of the best candidates around to meet the current tax benefit deadline of December 31, 2012.