$5 billion power line proposed

Avista Utilities is studying ways to link with and gain benefits from a $5 billion power line that a California utility has proposed to build between Northern California and British Columbia by late 2015.

The California utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., of San Francisco, says it wants to transmit renewable energy from the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Alberta to Northern California over the new line.

PG&E says it has identified "significant" new renewable generating capacity that's being developed in those areas.

Don Kopczynski, vice president of operations for Avista Utilities, says Avista holds a federal permit to build a power line between Spokane and Selkirk, British Columbia, and PG&E would like to take advantage of the right of way Avista has under that permit to build its line.

"It's a good project, well-funded Kopczynski says of the proposed line. "It will use our right of way. It will go right through our area. It will give us an ability to interconnect with one of our substations. It can help with electrical stability in our whole area."

If the transmission line is built, Avista likely would upgrade substantially its Devil's Gap substation in the Reardan, Wash., area, about 20 miles west of Spokane, so it could serve as an interconnection between its own 230-kv transmission grid and one of two 500-kilovolt transmission lines PG&E would build, Kopczynski says. The substation provides a 115-kv connection now.

Avista isn't a direct participant in PG&E's project thus far, but is on the project steering team along with PG&E, Portland General Electric Co. (PGE), Portland-based PacifiCorp, and the British Columbia Transmission Co.

PG&E posted an update on the project on its Web site Feb. 22, saying, "The project continues to move forward on schedule."

Yet, the power line, which would be the first so-called inter-tie with Canada in Eastern Washington, is just one of seven proposed major transmission projects that would link points both within the Inland Northwest and outside the region, Kopczynski says. PG&E, Kopczynski, executives with three other utilities, and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposed in a Dec. 21 letter that the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, of Salt Lake City, coordinate for all seven of the projects "transmission planning studies that are a critical first step in developing a reliable and integrated transmission grid for the 21st century."

The WECC has its roots in a similar organization founded in 1967 by 40 electric power systems and merged in 2002 with regional transmission systems from the West and Southwest. It coordinates and promotes electric system reliability in 14 Western states, British Columbia, Alberta, and the northern part of Baja California, Mexico.

"Generally, nothing gets built in the Western U.S. without their approval," Kopczynski says.

The seven proposed major transmission projects snake across most of the

Northwest, including big chunks of the Inland Northwest. The Dec. 21 letter and a map of the project developed two weeks ago says that:

* Idaho Power Co., of Boise, and several other utilities are seeking approval to build a 500-kv line from Boardman, Ore., where several coal-fired generating plants operate, to the Hemingway substation, near Melba, Idaho.

* PacifiCorp, which is controlled by legendary investor Warren Buffett, is proposing a 500-kv line roughly between the Captain Jack substation near the California-Oregon border and the Hemingway substation. PacifiCorp also is proposing a 230-kv line between Boardman and Walla Walla, although that isn't one of the seven projects.

* The BPA has proposed three 500-kv transmissions lines in two projects to increase capacity across multiple congested north-south transmission paths, to serve requests along multiple east-west paths, to integrate additional wind generation into the regional system, and to increase system reliability.

* Portland General Electric has proposed a 500-kw line to integrate generating plants in the Boardman area and additional proposed wind generation into the system.

* Avista is looking at an interconnection at Devil's Gap, which also would involve building two 230-kv lines from the substation to the company's Spokane-area transmission system.

Also, Kopczynski says, Northern Lights Transmission, of Calgary, Alberta, still is interested in building a 1,000-mile transmission line from the oil sands in northern Alberta to Celilo, Ore., on the Oregon-California border. That line, for which the Canadian company already has one of the required permits on the U.S. side of the border, would carry sizable loads of excess power that would be cogenerated if huge amounts of natural gas were burned to create steam to inject into the ground to extract crude from deep within the oil sands.

If all eight of the projects were built, they would add up to about $15 billion worth of new construction - sand because states have put so many requirements on utilities to meet part of their load with renewable energy, its "pretty likely" all of the lines will be built, Kopczynski says.