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The story
History
ITC was founded in 1999 as International Transmission Co., a subsidiary of Detroit Edison (since renamed DTE Energy Electric Company, itself a subsidiary of DTE Energy), charged in the ownership, operation and maintenance of Detroit Edison's transmission system. In 2003, DTE sold the subsidiary to ITC Holdings Corp., making it the first fully independent electricity transmission company in the United States. ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ITC) became a publicly traded company in 2005, and began construction of its Novi headquarters in 2006. Today it owns transmission systems in several states under a unique independent business model.
On February 9, 2016, it was announced that Fortis Inc., a Canadian utility company based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, will buy ITC Holdings for about $6.9 billion. The utility operator will also assume $4.4 billion in debt in cash and stock deal. Fortis said it intends to retain all ITC employees and that ITC will continue as a stand-alone operation at its Novi headquarters.
In November 2025, ITC Announced the retirement of CEO Linda Apsey and the appointment of Krista Tanner as her successor, effective March 23, 2026.
The original ITC Transmission system
The original ITC Transmission system serves areas of southeastern Michigan and the Thumb region served by DTE Electric.
Largely overlapping DTE Electric's area, and launched on March 1, 2003, ITC's transmission line voltages are 345,000 volts, 230,000 volts, 138,000 volts, and 120,000 volts.
ITC has three 345 kV interconnections with First Energy Corporation in Ohio, via that company's Toledo Edison subsidiary (Bayshore-Monroe line, Majestic-Monroe-Allen Junction line, and the Majestic-Lemoyne line). Though owned by ITC these lines reside on towers designed and previously owned by Consumers, as they pass through part of their service area in southern Monroe and southeastern Lenawee Counties.
There are four interconnections with Hydro One in Ontario, Canada—one 345kV (St. Clair-Lambton #1) and three 230kV (Keith-Waterman line, St. Clair-Lambton #2 line and the Bunce Creek-Scott line).
In the early 2010s, ITC Transmission added a new 345 kV line, the "Michigan Thumb Loop", to strengthen the transmission grid in the Thumb Region to serve as a backbone for the interconnection of new generation sources in the area, including wind farms. This project was built with steel tubular pylons in a double-circuit arrangement. This was completed in 2015.
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ITC Transmission has 2,800 circuit miles of transmission lines, with 17,700 transmission pylons, and 171 stations and substations. The system has 230 kV lines that cover the Metro Detroit area including Shelby Township in Macomb County where two meet at the Jewell Substation. The recognizable transmission line in the area is the so-called "Edison Corridor": two double-circuit 345 kV lines (portions of it became single circuit) and two 120 kV lines with one heading toward the northeast starting from the Bismark Substation to the Lenox Substation. This corridor extends 20 miles (32 km) through Warren from the Stephens Substation and through Sterling Heights and Utica, and finally Shelby and Washington Townships. ITC Transmission has spent approximately $1.2 billion in capital investments in rebuilding electric infrastructure in the metro-Detroit area since 2003. According to the 2012 SGS Statistical Services Transmission Reliability Benchmark Study, ITC Transmission was also ranked in the top 10% of electric utilities in terms of operational performance based on sustained outage performance data.
From Wikipedia’s article on ITC Transmission, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4