Posted on 06/28/2002 5:36:53 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Edited on 04/12/2004 5:39:52 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
A novel plan to widen a notorious bottleneck in the state's electric grid is marching forward in Washington despite warnings in California that the work may not be needed.
Path 15, a 90-mile stretch of the grid where three high-voltage lines dwindle to two, was linked to rolling blackouts last year that struck Northern California but spared the southern part.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
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Funny that no one wants to admit the primary purpose of the path 15 expansion is to get Mexican power into NorCal.
Right now there is a lot of money being spent by the Bonneville Power Administration and by California utilities to upgrade the two DC line terminals (Big Eddy in the N and Celio(sp) in the South). The other major way of importing PNW & BC power into California is over the 500 kV AC lines that go from Malin (BPA) to Round Mountain (PG&E) in the graph.
During the worst of the Blackouts in California, PG&E was limited in the power they could import from the PNW because their ability to be power from the southern DC terminal near LA is limited. When tree growth requires temporationg downgrading of AC line capacity or forest fires threaten the AC lines, PG&E is in vulnerable. It is that vulnerability that can be exploited. That vulnerability is also real. That need for path 15 is why it hasn't been upgraded. The need is not present at all times and folks don't want construction to occur in their back yard for something that is needed only once in a while.
The LA area also benefits from path 15 upgrades. When the big earthquake hit the LA area several years ago it destroyed the DC southern terminal and all of Southern California depended on Path 15 to keep its lights on.
But hey, it's expansion is required on a contingency basis not on a constant need basis, so I guess now that the blackouts are becoming a distant memory, the path isn't really needed.
Only if you think that parts of California are of strategic importance to the defense of the US or that California is part of the US. I am not sure that Boxer, Davis, or the California state legislature feels that way.
I keep remembering the justification in the California car air pollution bill that states that the California gross domestic product is the x'th largest economy in the world and that because of significance of the California economy in the world economy, it is important for California to take a leading role in solving global warming concerns. The legislature of California at that time didn't seem like it wanted to be part of the US.
Can't see this being an issue for most of the 90 miles.
I believe that the cost benefit ratio and the politics of who will build the project is at the heart of the delayed decision.
The cost is an issue because the ultimate benefactor will be a private generator in the south (probably Calpine) yet the price tag will be born principally by PG&E rate payers.
I also suspect that Gray Davis will not allow PG&E construction division to have the project and the consequent profits.
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