PUC ruling to affect Sunrise report

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 19, 2006 9:38 PM PDT ∞

A few milestones are fast approaching for the proposed 120-mile Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, including a decision this week that will shape how San Diego Gas & Electric Co. measures the potential economic benefits of its $1.4 billion project.

Sunrise is the hotly debated project that would string 500-kilovolt wires from giant, 160-foot metallic structures across the desert and mountain backcountry. Intended to meet San Diego County's growing thirst for power, the line would run through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the Warner Springs area, then under heavily populated neighborhoods in Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos.

While project opponents do not dispute the need for more power, they insist there are other, cheaper ways to provide it.

The San Diego-based utility, which provides electricity to 1.3 million customers in San Diego County and southern Orange County, is poised to file with the California Public Utilities Commission on Aug. 4 an updated project application with environmental and economic reports.

And Thursday, the commission, which regulates activities of the state's utilities, is expected to issue a decision that will require the utility to take into account certain factors in its economic analysis.

Both opponents and proponents of Sunrise say they expect the regulatory body to ratify a preliminary decision that asks for comparisons between project cost and customer benefits, as well as an examination of project alternatives.

"It's a formality at best," said Michael Shames, executive director for the San Diego utility watchdog group, Utility Consumers' Action Network. "There's no controversy surrounding this."

Stephanie Donovan, spokeswoman for SDG&E, agreed with that assessment, saying the utility already is using the proposed measuring criteria for the reports due to come out early next month. Essentially, she said, the preliminary decision calls on the utility to use economic yardsticks used by the California Independent System Operator, a state agency that oversees much of the California power grid.

"We follow the Cal ISO methodology," Donovan said. "We are in sync with it."

Meanwhile, the California ISO is gearing up for its own, independent review of Sunrise next week.

On Monday, the California ISO is planning to hold an open house-style meeting for county residents at the San Diego Regional Energy Office. On Aug. 3, the agency's board is scheduled to consider whether to endorse the transmission project as something needed to boost the statewide network of power lines.

Shames suggested that an endorsement was likely.

However, a decision by the utilities commission on whether to give SDG&E the green light to build the line will be made separately, and it is not likely to come until the middle of 2007, officials said.

SDG&E, in concert with the Imperial Irrigation District, wants to build the Sunrise transmission line from near El Centro in Imperial County to Carmel Valley in San Diego County. Draped from towers, the wires would meander through the desert of Imperial County and eastern San Diego County, slice through the backcountry north of Julian, before running underground through neighborhoods in Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos. The utility hopes to complete the 120-mile superhighway of electricity by 2010, the year it expects the San Diego region to have a 1,000-megawatt electricity shortfall in hot summer weeks like this one.

A megawatt is the standard measuring unit for electricity, and most of the time is roughly what it takes to keep the lights on in 750 to 1,000 homes.

Besides being needed to shore up the supply shortfall, the utility maintains the wires are necessary to increase the system's reliability, reduce consumers' electric bills and tap into so-called renewable energy sources in compliance with state policy. Cleaner renewable sources include solar power and must account for 20 percent of a utility's supply by next decade.

Among other things, Sunrise would be designed to bring in electricity from a large solar plant proposed near the Salton Sea.

Sunrise opponents suggest there are cheaper alternatives, such as building new power plants in San Diego County and replacing the aging, inefficient South Bay plant, as a company recently proposed doing. And they argue that there are plenty of opportunities to tap into renewable power locally.

Donovan maintained that the power line is superior to other options because of its potential to boost reliability more. She defined reliability as being able to keep the lights on for customers even when the region's largest power plant (Palomar Energy Center in Escondido) and its largest power line (the Southwest Powerlink along Interstate 8) are down. Donovan said SDG&E can guarantee that now, but won't be able to much longer unless it builds Sunrise.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.

Sunrise Powerlink Open House


The California Independent System Operator has scheduled a meeting open to the public to discuss its analysis of the potential economic benefits of the proposed Sunrise Powerlink transmission line. The meeting is set for:

6 to 8 p.m. Monday, July 24

San Diego Regional Energy Office

8520 Tech Way, Suite 110

San Diego, CA 92123

Those who plan to attend are asked to register online at www.sdenergy.org or by calling (866) 733-6374.

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