Electric Line May Have Power to Ease Logjams

With the flip of a symbolic switch Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger inaugurated a link in the state’s electric transmission system that officials are counting on to help stave off a repeat of the blackouts that afflicted California during the energy crisis.

Opening a third electrical transmission line along the 84-mile stretch between Los Banos and Gates in the Central Valley should uncork the notorious Path 15 bottleneck and make it easier to ship up to 1,500 megawatts of excess power -- the output of three average power plants -- between Southern and Northern California.

The improvement comes at a crucial time. According to a recent update from the state Energy Commission, Southern California could face severe shortages of electricity in August and September if temperatures are especially high. Power supplies could lag behind demand by as much as 29% by September 2008 in Southern California; the outlook for the north suggests more abundant supplies will be available.

In addition, there are transmission choke points besides Path 15 that need to be addressed and a backlog of generation projects that must be approved and built over the next five years, the Energy Commission warned.

Schwarzenegger, however, told Californians not to worry.

“Trust me. Everything will be under control. Your lights will stay on,” the governor told reporters amid the flashing lights and computer screens in the control room of the California Independent Service Operator. The government agency, known as Cal-ISO, runs 22,526 miles of electrical transmission lines that serve three-quarters of the state’s electrical needs.

Expanding Path 15, a federally sponsored project begun two years ago during the administration of former Gov. Gray Davis, is a key part of the new administration’s developing energy policy, Schwarzenegger said.

“With better transmission, more generation, a commitment to energy efficiency and conservation, we will accomplish the commonsense goals of my energy plan -- more power and at lower prices,” Schwarzenegger said.

The upgrade is akin to adding a third lane to a two-lane highway, said Bob Mitchell, president of Trans-Elect NTD Inc., a Reston, Va., company that financed the $250-million project in a partnership with the U.S. Energy Department and Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a unit of PG&E; Corp. The transmission line, which came in $50 million below budget, is expected to pay for itself in three to four years, Mitchell said.

The additional lane will go a long way toward ensuring that electrons from Southern California can be shipped north during summers when Sierra Nevada hydropower reservoirs run low. The power can also be shifted south when mountain snowpacks are plentiful and temperatures are unseasonably cool in the north.

The chronic electron traffic jam on Path 15 was partly responsible for rolling blackouts in the San Francisco area in early 2001 when surplus power from the south could not reach the Bay Area.

“It’s not a panacea, but it’s an important piece of infrastructure that makes sure we have access to resources,” said Jan Smutny-Jones, director of the Independent Energy Producers Assn., a trade group of non-utility generating companies.

Although most energy experts praised the new transmission capacity, they questioned the basis for the governor’s unbridled optimism and what they complained was his failure to issue a comprehensive energy plan after more than one year in office.

Bob Finkelstein, director of the Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer group, likened the governor’s call for trust to a “faith-based energy policy” that was largely being crafted out of view of the Legislature by a few of Schwarzenegger’s aides, industry representatives and the governor’s appointed regulators.

He accused the governor of wanting to push California back to the kind of free-market deregulation that contributed to rolling blackouts and soaring prices in 2000 and 2001.

Peter Navarro, a business professor and energy expert at UC Irvine, called the governor’s energy policy “just a bunch of disconnected, inconsistent and ideologically motivated statements.”

Ashley Snee, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the governor’s energy plans, partially spelled out in a letter to California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey, were “comprehensive, strategic and balanced.”