Reliability

To ensure that your electric and natural gas service is always there when and where you need it, Alliant Energy has a comprehensive reliability plan that includes:

The company also works with industry groups and government regulators to develop compliance procedures, conduct comprehensive readiness audits and test our systems with emergency drills.

Alliant Energy is proud to have one of the best reliability records in the utility industry. Our role is to be there when you need us - no matter what - and we take that responsibility very seriously.

 

Adding new generation sources

Wind

Alliant Energy has a commitment to maintain safe, reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible utility service for our customers.  The company’s new generation plan is a key piece of that commitment.  Currently, the company is focused on our three Alliant Energy-owned wind farm projects:

  • 68 MW of wind generation at Cedar Ridge Wind Farm, commissioned in December of 2008.
  • Approximately 200 MW of wind generation at the Whispering Willows Wind Farm, Phase I in Franklin County, Iowa expected online by the end of 2009.
  • Approximately 100 MW of wind generation at the Whispering Willow Wind Farm, Phase II in Franklin County, Iowa, which is expected to be available in 2011; and
  • Approximately 200 MW of wind generation from the Bent Tree Wind Farm, currently being planned and developed in Freeborn County, Minnesota.

The Whispering Willow and Bent Tree Wind Farm sites include enough space for an additional 400 MW of wind power with a timeline yet to be determined.

Natural Gas

Alliant Energy recently added more natural gas- fired generation to its portfolio. In June 2009, Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL) purchased a natural gas generating facility at Neenah, Wisconsin, which has a nameplate capacity of 300 megawatts (MW). WPL expects to purchase the 600 MW natural gas-fired Riverside Generating Station near Beloit, Wisconsin in 2013.

Natural gas-fired generation stations provide a key source of reliable power when demand for electricity is high, while also providing electric generation that is low in carbon emissions.

Alliant Energy continues to evaluate the types of capacity additions that will be needed to meet customers’ long-term energy needs. The company is monitoring several factors that will influence those evaluations, including changes in long-term projections of customer demand and environmental requirements which include future carbon and renewable-energy requirements.

 

Upgrading our existing infrastructure

Generation Facilities

Alliant Energy initiated the Clean Air Compliance Program (CACP) in 2006 to implement plans to install additional air emissions controls and monitoring equipment at our company's electric generating units. These upgrades will allow Alliant Energy to produce cleaner electricity for customers at lower costs and greater reliability.

Electric and Natural Gas Infrastructure

The demand for Alliant Energy electricity has increased more than eight percent over the past ten years. That's why we're investing to:

  • Upgrade existing distribution lines
  • Build new substations and distribution lines
  • Update existing power plants
  • Upgrade and maintaining existing natural gas facilities
  • Install new technology

 

Preventing power line damage

Tree limbs and power lines aren't a good combination - especially when severe weather hits. Trees are a common cause of service interruptions and outages, and a damaging storm can disrupt power for extended periods.

To help limit weather-related interruptions or outages, Alliant Energy regularly trims trees that are conflicting with power lines. We trim trees along primary transmission and distribution lines on a four- to five-year cycle.

 

Encouraging energy conservation

Alliant Energy's energy efficiency portfolio includes a mix of products and programs targeted at reducing peak demands and saving customers' energy.

Since 1993, Alliant Energy’s energy efficiency programs have saved 2.77 million megawatt-hours of electricity and 79.1 million therms of natural gas.