Power Transmission Line to Be Upgraded

PG&E; Corp.’s Pacific Gas & Electric, Trans-Elect Inc. and the U.S. Department of Energy agreed Friday on a $300-million upgrade of electricity-transmission lines connecting Northern and Southern California.

The Energy Department said it expects to choose an engineering, procurement and construction contractor by June to build an 84-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line along the Path 15 electricity route.

“Despite the news reports that California has enough electricity to get through the winter, Path 15 remains a bottleneck that limits power transfers in California,” Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said.

Congestion on Path 15 was blamed for two days of blackouts in Northern California during the state’s 2001 power crisis. Expansion of the power-transmission route was part of President Bush’s plan to solve California’s power crisis, Abraham said when he announced the project in 2001.

Work on the project is expected to begin at midyear, with the new line beginning service in late 2004. After the upgrade, Californians will save $100 million during a year with normal electricity supplies and $300 million during a dry year, when hydroelectric power is in short supply in Northern California, the state’s power grid operator said.

The new line will be owned by the Western Area Power Administration, an Energy Department agency, and transmission rights will be shared by the agency, closely held Trans-Elect and San Francisco-based Pacific Gas, California’s largest utility. The project will pay for itself in four years, according to the California Independent System Operator, which will operate the new transmission line.