A transmission company that wants to take North Dakota's wind energy to Eastern markets says its plan hinges on a federal change in how transmission facilities are paid for.

Representatives of ITC Holdings in Novi, Mich., joined officials with Denali Energy, a company involved in the proposed Hartland Wind Farm northwest of Minot, at a meeting in Minot with landowners Wednesday.

Joseph Dudak, vice president of major contracts and special projects at ITC, said the company hopes to complete the first phase of a transmission line in the state by 2013 or at least by 2014. However, it won't happen without a change in a federal policy that places the bill for construction on electrical users in producing states and none on electrical users in the receiving states, he said.

"If this is just on the backs of the homeowners in this state, we won't do it," Dudak said. "We can't ask for you to pay for that big a piece of it."

ITC has proposed The Green Power Express, a network of transmission lines that would facilitate the movement of 12,000 megawatts of wind power from the Upper Midwest to Midwestern and Eastern states. The project would include about 3,000 miles of extra high-voltage transmission at a cost of about $10 billion to $12 billion.

When complete, the lines will traverse portions of North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and likely Indiana.

ITC has received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a plan that determines the development costs that the company is allowed to recover through revenue. Dudak said ITC now is in discussion with the regional authority, the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, to put together a means of revenue generation.

That is where a problem with federal policy is arising, Dudak said. The country is divided into regions governed by separate authorities, and cost recovery on transmission projects is to come from revenue within that region. Typically, transmission projects have stayed within regions so allocating costs within the region made sense, he said.

As transmission becomes more national in scope, the regional payment plan creates inequity, he said. ITC is working with North Dakota's congressional delegation and others in Congress toward passage of legislation that would lift those cross-region restrictions.

"We are trying to convince the Congress and the federal energy commission that the cost of this should be spread out over everyone who gets benefit out of it," Dudak said.

ITC needs to have Congress act by fall if it is to stay on its development schedule and break ground in February 2011. If Congress fails to act by fall, Dudak said, ITC might force the issue with FERC, which has the authority to change the cost allocation policy without congressional action.

"The FERC can do it. They deferred because they hoped some changes were coming from Congress," he said.

Curt Johnson, chief executive officer and chairman of Denali of Baxter, Minn., said his company needs transmission facilities if it is to erect the 2,000-megawatt wind farm that it proposes. It is working with ITC and another major transmission company whose plans aren't as far along.

ITC proposes to use transmission towers that will carry high voltage, enabling the company to erect one-sixth the number of towers to carry the same load, Dudak said.

ITC is talking with railroads about using their unused rights of way or their under-used industrial properties. It also is talking with utility partners about sharing rights of way. ITC is seeking to bring utilities into its operation as minor partners.

Where new rights of way are needed, Dudak said, ITC wants to obtain the land through successful negotiation of fair market values with landowners.