ITC power Transmission

[dmchalmers]

never ran Across anything about Freqs of. Not sure if this was spun off from Consumers or is a Sub of.

 

[pilondav]

They’re using MPSCS on encrypted talk groups, unfortunately. ITC was formed by DTE Energy, then spun off. After the spin-off, they bought the transmission assets of Consumers Energy (which they had already spun off as American Transmission Company), plus a few other transcos in Iowa. ITC is currently owned by a Canadian investment company called Fortis.

I don’t believe they use their radios for day-to-day operations. They’re there mainly for disaster recovery purposes.

 

[dmchalmers]

Thank You! I knew the High Power lines near me use to be Consumers from Gaylord Mi to Mio dam, then Mio damn down river to Oscoda an i've noticed over the yrs ITC started upgrading an has a shop in Gaylord, just never knew the history.

 

[pilondav]

No problem. The spin-offs took place around 2002-2003, IIRC. Consumers and DTE were pushing for deregulation in the late 90s, so the MPSC said they had to divest either their generation assets or their transmission assets. Both utilities chose to keep the generation and sell the transmission businesses. Deregulation turned out to be a big flop and I think both companies wish they had their transmission lines back. Be careful what you wish for. As Paul Harvey used to say, “…and now you know the REST of the story.”

In other news, both Consumers and DTE Electric are switching to the MPSCS. DTE Gas is already on MPSCS, but only uses encrypted talk groups. I believe Consumers and DTE Electric will be mostly unencrypted with a few encrypted talk groups. Consumers is already on-the-air with MPSCS. DTE Electric is a few months out. Both companies will have a change-over period with patched comms between their old and new systems.