In recent years, line contractors have struggled to complete transmission projects, which have been stifled by permitting delays.  

“We could build 90 miles of transmission line in eight months, but because of a river and the permits needed for crossing, contractors may be waiting another eight or nine months to move forward,” said Kevin Moran, executive director of American Line Builders NECA chapter. “For massive projects, this has really become an issue. We’ve really pushed hard on permitting reform.”

Widespread challenges

Throughout the nation, permitting delays for transmission projects seem to be increasing. Factors driving this include growing regulatory complexity, overlapping jurisdictions, conflicting regulations, increased community opposition in the form of “not in my backyard” attitudes, shifting regulatory landscapes and severely understaffed regulatory agencies. 

According to a position summary by NECA’s Government Affairs Committee, “Permitting hurdles and the lack of transmission buildout have prevented completed energy projects from connecting to the grid or halted projects from completion altogether.” 

Contractors across the country are affected by these challenges. Areas where construction is most urgent to reduce grid congestion include the Northwest, Southwest and mountain states as well as California, Texas and New York.

“With regard to transmission infrastructure, we have a two-lane road with lots of potholes, and we need a four-lane expressway due to increasing demand for electricity,” said Jake Davie, senior vice president of Hooper Corp.’s electric power division, DeForest, Wis. “The big push toward renewable energy has compounded the situation.”

Much of the produced energy must be consumed immediately, and some sources, such as wind and solar, are intermittent, he said. 

“There’s a need for more substations and connections but also to draw power from other sources further away,” he said.

In some states, electric utilities serving large areas must wheel in power from across state lines to meet demand fueled by data centers, electric vehicle charging and other customers with high energy demand.

Minnesota Power is constructing two large transmission projects within the footprint of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the electric grid operation serving portions of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region in addition to the province of Manitoba, Canada.

As a regional authority, MISO facilitates the buying and selling of electricity. It is currently overseeing construction of MISO Tranche 1 and Tranche 2.1, which represent early phases of a long-range transmission upgrade plan. The construction effort includes installation of transmission lines and substations to create a more resilient grid.

“For this, we’re mostly adding infrastructure, driven by transition from centralized base-load generation to geographically dispersed and intermittently available renewable energy sources,” said Jim Atkinson, manager of environmental and real estate for Minnesota Power. “These projects require many more connections.”

Unfortunately, large and complicated projects such as these also involve uncertainty as to when work can commence.

“As far as permitting, we can’t sign a contract until we know where we are with permitting,” Atkinson said.

Labor challenges

Permitting delays often cause staffing headaches for utility companies and contractors. 

“Our biggest concern is not being able to get the contractor we want because they get drawn into someone else’s work while we’re waiting,” Atkinson said. “Of course we understand—they have to eat. How long can they wait?”

“From a labor standpoint, it may take two years or more to build a project under normal circumstances,” Davie said, adding that permitting delays can cut into construction timelines. 

“Say a contractor needs 100 people for a two-year project, but then it’s pushed to having to be completed in one year. Now you need 200 people,” he said. “It’s tough to do that. In order to get the workforce you need, you have to ask people to work longer hours and more days per week. That results in overtime, which increases labor costs and workplace risks. These things can end up costing contractors much more.”

“There can be unintended consequences,” Davie said adding that it can include everything from work-related accidents to suicides resulting from working in a high-pressure environment. 

Legislation

The Facilitating American’s Siting of Transmission and Electric Reliability Act of 2023 never came to a vote, but the recent Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, or S.4753, aims to achieve similar goals. With the new Congress, this bill’s future is uncertain.

Key provisions of the 2024 legislation aim to:

• Impose time limits on response from federal agencies regarding permit applications
• Give priority attention to transmission projects located in rights-of-way and deemed necessary for the public welfare, public interest and national security
• Enforce allowance of adequate time for public response to project proposals, including communities, states and tribal lands
• Support grid construction and revitalization while enforcing protection of environmentally protected areas by requiring “low-disturbance activity” for construction
• Address federal agency staffing issues that can create bottlenecks in the application process

Photo by Wilson Construction Co.

“Utilities must apply for a vast array of permits,” Davie said. “I would encourage contractors to realize that permitting is important, that it does impact our ability to do the work we need to do, and to reach out to the NECA government affairs team. They also need to contact their representative or senator and get involved to make our voices heard.”

Best practices

Contractors may participate more in the permitting application process in the future. Five years ago, Hooper Corp. partnered with Wilson Construction Co., Canby, Ore., on the construction of the Great Northern Transmission Line (GNTL). Running from Manitoba, Canada, to Minnesota, the project exemplified permitting and construction challenges associated with large transmission projects.

The project traversed multiple jurisdictions and environmentally sensitive natural areas. It crossed tribal lands, state lines and an international boundary.

Completed in 2020, the GNTL became a harbinger of things to come: ever-­growing numbers of mega transmission projects crossing multiple governmental boundaries and posing complicated permitting requirements. Besides signaling the arrival of transmission systems with multiple connections and redundancies, it revealed best practices for contractors to help utilities minimize permitting delays.

“Historically, utilities have tackled the permitting process without input from construction contractors,” said Brandon Hawkins, vice president of environmental services for Wilson Construction. “Wilson realized quite some time ago there’s a need to be proactive with utilities and the permitting process. We recognized that they can sometimes use help clearly communicating low-impact strategies as well as their ability to adapt to this changing construction environment.”

For that reason, Wilson Construction established an environmental planning, permitting and compliance department in 2005.

“Having the contractor involved in the permitting process can help the utility spell out how the project will be constructed and make it easier for the contractor to comply with the permit requirements during construction,” Davie said.

For the GNTL, that compliance involved “low-disturbance” construction strategies such as using helicopters to install the project’s 800 transmission towers. That strategy prevented having to build access roads that would have affected protected wetlands and wildlife.

In addition, it enabled the company to do more work with fewer equipment operators. That’s become more important in recent years, Davie said, because “demand for transmission lines is the greatest it’s ever been in this country.”

Another environmental compliance strategy was scheduling the work during the winter months and building temporary ice roads to provide access to staging points for delivery of equipment and materials. The ice roads melted away in spring and vegetation grew back without permanent obstructions.

“One of the things we learned from big linear projects is that the public really does care about the environment,” Hawkins said. “When you come at things too forcefully and don’t engage the public, it doesn’t work out well.” 

Community outreach is an essential component of the permitting process. 

“Communities must have the opportunity to weigh in,” Hawkins said. 

Minnesota Power representatives held numerous open house meetings with local communities and townships served by the GNTL. Workers from Wilson and Hooper participated. 

“The Department of Energy was the lead federal agency, and full federal involvement at every level made this [outreach process] twice as important,” Atkinson said. 

“The Red Lake Band of the Ojibwe was supportive of the program,” Atkinson said. “We ended up working together, and I don’t believe we would have gotten anywhere without their support.”

Atkinson, Hawkins and Davie agreed that minimizing permitting delays requires:

• Acceptance, embracing a “new norm”
• Finding innovative ways to comply with environmental requirements
• If appropriate, contractors providing information to help utilities clarify permitting application declarations of strategies to reduce environmental impact
• Participating in public meetings scheduled by utility representatives to address community concerns

The GNTL was completed in 2020. 

“If not for these combined strategies, we might still be working on it,” Atkinson said. “I thought I would never see another project on this scale before I retired, but, now, we’re working on several of these.”

Davie, Hawkins and Atkinson support passage of federal legislation to make permitting easier for large transmission projects. In the meantime, they’re doing their best to keep work moving forward. 

“A good contractor keeps compliant with regulations, understands and abides by requirements and regulations,” Atkinson said. “They [Hooper and Wilson] have been good partners in that regard.”

Header image: The Great Northern Transmission Line, seen here under construction prior to 2020, covers multiple jurisdictions and represents the start of a new era of complex permitting considerations. Photo by Hooper Corp.