A new plan for Midwest power lines could cost $23 billion. Is it enough?

Those lines are still moving through the regulatory process in Minnesota.

MISO estimated Tranche 2 to cost $17 billion to $23 billion, and it appears to include either three or five lines in Minnesota and more than a dozen in total across Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.

The potential cost of the Minnesota projects and the effect on bills is still unclear. Electricity customers ultimately pay for power lines, though costs for the MISO plans in the Upper Midwest are spread across the region based on electric use.

In a public meeting Friday, MISO invited feedback and said its plans could change. Local electric utilities said the current version of Tranche 2 is sparse in Minnesota and North Dakota, leaving the states with unmet needs.

They offered mostly general critiques.

Drew Siebenaler, Xcel's manager of regional transmission planning and analytics, told MISO officials the power lines don't do enough to account for a projected rise in energy demand.

That spike is happening across the country, and Xcel is predicting a one-third increase in its electric load by 2040. That represents a sharp split from a long period of ultraslow growth, and to supply all that extra electricity, Xcel could need to build significantly more power generation.

The MISO proposal would create a new transmission highway in the Upper Midwest of 765 kilovolt power lines, which Sullivan said can carry a "massive amount of energy" and are substantially bigger than the 345 kV lines that serve as the backbone of the current system.

The draft map shows a long 765 kV corridor in southern Minnesota, along with one 345 kV line near Rochester and another going from roughly Alexandria to Fargo.

But Siebenaler said there needs to be large-capacity transmission projects cutting across more than the southern part of the state. And he urged MISO to not rule out substantial additions to the plan.

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