Edison asks Arizona to reconsider power line

Southern California Edison asked Arizona regulators Tuesday to reconsider their decision to reject a $545-million transmission line project to deliver electricity to California.

Edison, a unit of Edison International, said it filed papers at the Arizona Corporation Commission seeking a rehearing. The commission turned down the project at the end of May, saying the 230-mile line would cost Arizona ratepayers as much as $242 million while giving California access to cheaper power generated in Arizona.

The Arizona-California transmission corridor is one of two key power grids in the United States identified by the Energy Department as in crucial need of expansion to ease bottlenecks and avoid blackouts. The other corridor is in the mid-Atlantic states from New York to Virginia.

In rejecting Edison’s plan, commissioner Kris Mayes said: “California wants to drop a 230-mile extension cord into Arizona at a time when Arizona is the fastest-growing state in the nation.” The project would harm the state’s electric ratepayers, air quality, land, water and wildlife, Mayes said.

Edison’s petition for a rehearing said in part that the proposed transmission line minimizes environmental impacts while meeting significant needs for electricity and reducing congestion on the interstate grid.

The line would run from a switchyard west of Phoenix, to a substation in Riverside County.