California adding more power lines
to unclog grid
California energy planners said on Tuesday they were
making progress toward adding power lines to the state's
congested electric grid but they must find better
ways to work with federal officials and nearby states
to identify and build badly needed projects.
Officials from three California agencies — Energy
Commission, Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and
Power Authority — met in Sacramento to review
the state's Energy Action Plan. The plan was designed
last year to ensure the state has reasonably priced
power and natural gas supplies and to add more renewable
energy resources like solar and wind power.
California's three investor-owned utilities —
PG&E Corp.'s ((PCG.N)) Pacific Gas & Electric
unit, Edison International's ((EIX.N)) Southern California
Edison, and Sempra Energy's ((SRE.N)) San Diego Gas
& Electric — have spent about $2 billion
on grid work since 1996, officials said.
Transmission projects have added 13,000 megawatts
since January 2001 — power for about 13 million
homes — and utilities are eyeing 140 more projects
to string new lines, replace old equipment and unclog
congested paths on the grid.
Grid congestion was a big contributor to California's
power emergency in 2000-2001 when a flawed bid to
deregulate the state power market and soaring electricity
prices crippled the three utilities, tipping Pacific
Gas & Electric, the state's biggest utility, into
bankruptcy.
Barbara Hale, director of strategic planning at the
PUC, said new projects would clear clogged transmission
paths in the San Diego area and import low-cost power
from Mexico, while San Francisco would get a new PG&E
power line to avoid a repeat of a costly blackout
of the city in December 1998.
Another 350 megawatt, direct current transmission
line running under San Francisco Bay to deliver more
power to the city is being planned, according to the
PUC and Babcock & Brown, an investment banking
firm that would develop the project.
A critical grid corridor near Fresno in the Central
Valley would add a third power line in December to
ease congestion on electricity flows between the northern
and southern parts of the state.
Officials from the three agencies said they must
develop better tools to measure the costs and benefits
of power projects and streamline regulatory reviews
by the PUC and Independent System Operator, the state's
grid manager. There also should be more grid coordination
with neighboring states and the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, they said.
March 2 (Reuters) distributed by Energy Central News
Service, 2004.
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