SDG&E proposes route changes for power line

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Friday, August 4, 2006 4:51 PM PDT ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- San Diego County's electric utility Friday filed a long-awaited report that shifts portions of a "preferred route" for its proposed Sunrise Powerlink transmission line to avoid military air space in the desert, ranch-style homes in Ramona and vernal pools in Rancho Penasquitos.

In filing a voluminous amended application for the power line project it insists is needed to shore up a looming electricity shortfall, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. increased the length of the route from 120 miles to 150 miles and refined its $1 billion-to-$1.4 billion cost estimate to a more precise $1.265 billion.

Hundreds of pages long, the application was filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, the state agency charged with the task of approving or rejecting the project. A decision is anticipated by the fall of 2007.

Here, according to SDG&E officials, are highlights of the proposed route changes:

- Through the San Diego Country Estates in the Ramona area, the line would run southwest along Gunn Stage Road to San Vicente Road, and then along San Vicente Road ---- instead of wrapping around the north side of the Estates and crossing a line of hills to Creelman Lane. For four miles ---- from the east end of the Estates to a water treatment plant just east of Wildcat Canyon Road ---- the line would run underground.

- Through the San Ysabel area, the preferred route would move 1.5 miles to the east to avoid a scenic area of waterfalls and oak forest along the San Dieguito River Park and Coast to Crest Trail that a conservation group had asked the utility to avoid. The line would run about a half mile west of the Santa Ysabel community.

- On the west side of Rancho Penasquitos, the preferred route would move a half mile south and remain underground longer to avoid sensitive vernal pools in the area.

- In the Warner Springs area, the substation that was slated to be built at the corner of State Route 79 and S-2 would move to the east, on a site 1.5 miles south of the junction of county roads S-2 and S-22.

- Thirty miles of additional wires would be added in the Imperial County desert to avoid military air space, increasing the overall length of the line. That's because the previously designated preferred route along the west side of Imperial Valley would shift to the east side of military bases, just west of the valley farming area.

"That was primarily to avoid Department of Defense restricted air space," said Stephanie Donovan, an SDG&E spokeswoman.

Jim Avery, senior vice president of electric for SDG&E, said the San Diego Country Estates change was intended to avoid running the line right behind people's back yards. But other area residents said they were unhappy about the route down Gunn Stage because, while it would be in the ground and farther away from back yards, it still would be relatively close to many houses.

Lynn Trexel, principal land advisor for the utility, said the proposed changes in the Santa Ysabel and Rancho Penasquitos areas were designed to avoid harming environmental sensitive habitat and scenic landscapes.

Initially, when it unveiled routes in March, the utility proposed to build two miles of underground line, beginning at the Chicarita Substation at Penasquitos Boulevard and Highway 56 and heading west through the neighborhood south of the new freeway. Now SDG&E is proposing to extend the wires underground for two more miles, along Park Village Road and under the Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve.

"This will take the line completely out of view of that entire (Rancho Penasquitos) area," Avery said. "If you don't see a line today, you won't see one in the future," he said.

SDG&E, which serves 1.3 million homes and businesses in San Diego County and southern Orange County, insists that the county needs this power line to avoid running short on hot days as early as 2010.

The utility says the project would deliver 1,000 megawatts over 500-kilovolt wires strung from erector-set-like towers as tall as 160 feet through the backcountry of Imperial and San Diego counties, including a long stretch through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The towers and wires also would be visible on the edges of urban areas, although sections would be buried, such as through the San Diego Country Estates and Rancho Penasquitos.

A megawatt is the standard unit used to measure electricity and typically what it takes to keep the lights on in 750 to 1,000 homes. However, much more power is needed on hot summer days, and total demand reached an high of 4,500 megawatts during the recent heat wave, pushing to the limit the region's 4,600-megawatt supply.

Aside from addressing shortfall, SDG&E is aiming to ramp up the portion of its supply from so-called renewable or nonfossil-fuel sources to 20 percent, in order to comply with a state requirement that kicks in four years from now. SDG&E has signed contracts with firms that plan to build plants to tap the power of the sun and underground geysers.

Project opponents insist there are cheaper, less environmentally destructive ways to plug the shortfall. And they say it would be better to build renewable energy projects, such as wind turbines, close to home than to construct a costly transmission line.

However, the California Independent System Operator, an independent federally regulated agency that oversees California's power grid, concluded on Thursday that the line's benefits would exceed its $1.4 billion cost by $1.2 billion.