Transmission for California’s Central Valley
George Dawe is Executive Vice President, Duke-American Transmission Company.
PUF: George, give me a picture of your transmission project. What is it planned for? What is the technology, and the time frame?
George Dawe: This transmission project is planned to be an 85-mile, 230-kilovolt project for the Central Valley of California, primarily to serve the needs of water customers in the Central Valley.
The capacity of the project is estimated to be about 600 megawatts. The water customers are the primary subscribers.
PUF: When did you start working on it and why this project?
George Dawe: There were early discussions in 2013. It's really all about providing electric service to the water customers.
They had a transmission contract with Pacific Gas and Electric that expired in 2016. They had been exploring opportunities with WAPA to build their own transmission line, to have WAPA build transmission to provide the service that PG&E was not going to go forward with.
PUF: Give me a sense of what this transmission line is going to look like.
George Dawe: It's intended to connect at an existing Tracy substation to the San Luis, O'Neill and Dos Amigos substations, roughly an 85-mile route from Tracy. In our view, it certainly enhances the existing grid in Southern California by providing yet another line connecting Northern to Southern California.
PUF: Did you have to go through different kinds of approvals?