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Tonbridge executes agreements with Western Area Power for funding and development of two transmission lines

Published: 04:03 01 Sep 2010 AEST

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Electical transmission asset developer Tonbridge Power (TSXV-TBZ) has officially outlined two frameworks of cooperation with the Western Area Power Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), for further review and evaluation of the company`s proposed Green Line and MATL upgrade projects.

The two memorandums of understanding outline funding of investment in, and development of both projects.
The official documents delineate that Western and Tonbridge will pursue an aggressive schedule to complete the evaluative work required and to proceed to definitive project financing agreements, subject to usual final approvals.

Such definitive agreements would outline the project scope, governance, ownership participation, the rights and obligations of each party, interest rates and repayment structure as well as provide for funding construction.

The memorandums were executed in accordance with the requirements in section 402 of the Recovery Act and respect the evaluation criteria set out in Western's Transmission Infrastructure Program (TIP), Tonbridge said.

The Green Line Project is a 230-500-kV transmission line under development that would connect the southern end of the MATL line near Great Falls, Mont., to the Colstrip line at either Townsend or Garrison, providing service to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) system. Initial development commenced in November 2009 after Tonbridge concluded agreements with Gaelectric North America, and later with Invenergy Wind Development, as the project's two anchor shippers.

The MATL project is designed to increase the current MATL path rating from 300 MW to as much as 600 MW, but only as system stability and flow conditions permit. Currently, the MATL line is under construction and, when completed, has the physical capacity to transmit more than its present 300-MW path rating would permit.  The MATL upgrade would provide access to new wind generation assets in the region and would enable Western to obtain 50 MW of northbound capacity on the MATL line.

This upgrade project's scope and schedule will coincide with the development of the Green Line and will include flow, congestion and design studies, path rating and permit applications as well as possible substation investments, it said.

Western is a power marketing agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Tonbridge Power  is a Toronto-based developer of electrical transmission assets.

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