Proposed power line qualifies for flexibility
By: AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer
Nevada Hydro will be allowed to charge higher rate for use link to grids | ∞
LAKE ELSINORE ---- The Vista-based company trying to build a hydroelectric power plant and a 30-mile transmission line in Lake Elsinore found out this week that the line, if it is constructed, will qualify for federal incentives.
The incentives, which allow the owner of a transmission line to charge higher than normal rates, were passed in 2005 to spur construction of new lines.
The company, Nevada Hydro, and the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District have been trying for years to get permission from a long list of federal and state government agencies to build a hydroelectric plant on the western shore of Lake Elsinore.
The plant would generate power by pumping water from the lake up the mountain and into a dammed reservoir during the night, then running the water downhill through turbines during the day when energy is most needed.
The transmission line ---- dubbed the Talega-Escondido/Valley-Serano Interconnect ---- is expected to connect the plant to the San Diego and Los Angeles power grids.
The action this week by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which approved the incentives for the line, does not move the project any closer to construction but it should help Nevada Hydro assure investors that the project, if it is approved, will be a viable investment.
"Nevada Hydro demonstrated ... that the project is not routine and will provide a critical link between two major transmission corridors in California," said Celeste Miller, a spokeswoman for the commission, in a news release.
Mary O'Driscoll, another commission spokeswoman, said Friday that the incentives mean Nevada Hydro will be able to charge more than the federally regulated rate for use of its line, if it is built.
The commission has not yet determined exactly how much more it will be allowed to charge because Nevada Hydro did not use an approved method of calculating an expected rate of return in the paperwork it submitted.
The commission will allow Nevada Hydro to "redo the numbers" and submit new paperwork later, O'Driscoll said.
Nevada Hydro spokesman Chris Wysocki said Thursday that the commission's decision was great news for the company, which is slowly but surely making progress moving the complex project through the maze of federal and state red tape.
Earlier this month, Nevada Hydro received word from the state's Water Resources Control Board that it would consider the company's request for permission to build the plant and the line once it receives confirmation that Nevada Hydro has paid for an environmental review of the project required by state law.
Last year, Nevada Hydro argued that a federal review of the project, which has already been completed, was sufficient. The control board disagreed and in a letter dated March 7, a staff environmental scientist states that an additional review must be prepared before the board can certify the project under the state's clean water act.
Receiving certification from the board is just one of many more steps the project must go through before approval.
Wysocki said Nevada Hydro is prepared to pay for the environmental review and he is hoping to see it complete in late fall of this year or early winter.
Once the review, which identifies how the project will affect the environment, is completed it likely will face legal challenges from opponents, an entrenched group of Lake Elsinore property owners and environmentalists.
Wysocki said investors, including Morgan Stanley Capital Group, continue to support the project because it is a "green" power solution that wouldn't contribute to air pollution.
Environmentalists take exception to that characterization, calling it a rape of natural resources for the benefit of a small group of investors and the district, which will receive a yearly payment from Nevada Hydro if the project is ever completed.
Contact Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or e-mail aclaverie@californian.com.
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mean green wrote on Mar 22, 2008 7:24 AM:How 'green' can a project be that causes hundreds if not thousands of trees to be cut down to carve a corridor in a national forest, then actually uses more electricity than it creates? Just because it uses it at night doesn't make it an 'environmentally sensitive' project. CO2 doesn't care whether it's produced at night or daytime, it still goes into the atmosphere. This has always been, and still is, one of the stupidest ideas ever concocted -- which I guess explains why the government thinks it's a great idea and worthy of subsidizing.
Roberto1 wrote on Mar 22, 2008 5:15 PM:Importing more power from Mexico, Texas and other less environmentally stringent requirment places doesn't any sense. The ability to balance the grid already exist....we need more homegrown power, not imported unregulated power....
Charles wrote on Mar 24, 2008 4:54 PM:I thought this project was supposed to save the rate payers money and lower their electric bills?
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