A developer wants to build an underground, high-power transmission line from Mason City, Iowa to Plano, Illinois. This week, the company called, Soo Green HVDC Link ProjectCo, LLC and the Iowa Utilities Board are hosting a series of online, public meetings about the 350-mile proposal.
During the first webinar today, Neil Jones, Soo Green's Vice President of Real Estate, told property owners and others the project's main investor is from Denmark, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
Canadian Pacific Railroad is a strategic partner in the proposal to install 220 miles of conduit and high voltage power lines in Iowa, along the tracks from Mason City to the Mississippi River.
Jones says only users will pay for the new power line. Ratepayers in Iowa will not be charged.
For property that's adjacent to the project, Soo Green would pay landowners $8,500 per mile. And the company would have to negotiate separate agreements with municipalities on the transmission line route.
Jones says the project would create 12,000 construction jobs, 6,800 of them in Iowa plus 75 permanent jobs with 27 of those in Iowa.
The underground high voltage transmission line would follow Canadian Pacific railroad tracks east to the Mississippi in Dubuque, then south to Sabula.
That's where it would cross under the river.
That online public meeting for Jackson County property owners is set for Tuesday at noon.
The Iowa Utilities Board is also taking written comments about the Soo Green proposal. Only written comments will become part of the agency's record. More information is available on the company's website HERE, and the IUB website HERE.
