NORTH COUNTY - The merits of a controversial power line should be judged in part on whether it would prevent San Diego County from relying heavily on renewable energy, a director of an energy think tank said Tuesday.

"To me the question is, if you put in the Sunrise Powerlink, does that foreclose for a very long time the kind of future that we should be heading for?" Scott Anders, director of the Energy Policy Initiatives Center at the University of San Diego, said in a meeting with the North County Times editorial board.

A few years ago, a panel of professionals hammered out a regional energy vision that stressed the importance of developing renewable sources such as solar and wind power, and encouraging homeowners and business owners to install solar panels on rooftops to supply their own power.

In late 2005, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., the region's major utility, proposed constructing a $1.3 billion transmission line called Sunrise Powerlink across the backcountry of San Diego and Imperial counties. The line would run for 150 miles through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos.

A study analyzing the project's impact on communities and the environment is expected in July, and the California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to decide whether to give the utility the green light to build in January 2008. The result is not a foregone conclusion, Anders said, despite an endorsement last summer from the California Independent System Operator, which operates the state's power grid.

At the same time, he said state utility commissioners will feel pressure from the federal government if the U.S. Department of Energy approves a plan to designate seven counties in Southern California, including San Diego and Riverside, as part of a national-priority Southwest transmission corridor. The corridor would run to Arizona and Nevada.

Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could overrule a state decision blocking construction of a power line within the corridor.

"That's a real potential (with the Sunrise Powerlink)," Anders said. "The FERC could come in and say, 'PUC, you didn't do this, but we think there is an overarching federal interest in building this line.' "

The Department of Energy has scheduled a public meeting in San Diego about the corridor plan from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, 1 Market Place.

Renewable energy is one of the main selling points SDG&E is using to promote its power line. The utility says the wires would plug San Diego County into a developing mecca of solar, wind and geothermal power in the Salton Sea area, and help the county comply with a state mandate to secure 20 percent of its electricity from such sources.

To that end, the utility has signed a contract to take electricity from a massive solar plant that Stirling Energy Systems of Phoenix proposes to build in Imperial County. Anders said chances are the plant won't materialize because it would use technology untested on a large commercial scale.

"That was a bait and switch, if you will," Anders said. "I call it the green at the end of the rainbow."

Still, that does not mean the line should not be built, said Anders, who is neutral on Sunrise Powerlink. The bottom line is San Diego County will need more electricity, he said.

"Nobody wants anything in their backyard," Anders said. "But there's no such thing as a free lunch. You're not going to keep the lights on and not build some infrastructure at some point somewhere. At some point, something's got to give."

Anders said the region can trim energy use in homes and businesses on hot days.

"It's sort of like dieting," he said. "Dieting is pretty easy, right? It's calories in versus calories out. You take in more than you need, you get fat. You take in less than you need, you get skinny. That's kind of the way it is (with power). You need less demand or you need more coming in."

For more on Thursday's meeting, visit http://www.energetics.com/NIETCpublicmeetings/may17.shtml.

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