Grid Operator Says Coolwater-Lugo Transmission Line Unnecessary

Southern California Edison's (SCE) proposal to build a destructive new transmission line across desert wildlands just hit a snag.  The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) - the organization responsible for managing the state's transmission grid - reported that SCE's proposed Coolwater-Lugo Transmission Project is no longer necessary to bring all of the Mojave Solar project's energy to the grid.  SCE had argued that it could not deliver energy from Abengoa's Mojave Solar on existing transmission lines because those lines were already in use by other power plants.  A new 75 mile transmission line would be needed to connect the project to the grid, according to SCE, a portion of which would be built outside of existing transmission corridors.

The early dawn sun highlights desert silhouettes in the northern Lucerne Valley, just east of the Granite Mountains.  The proposed Coolwater-Lugo Transmission Project would cut right through this landscape.
However, the CAISO's submission to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) undercuts SCE's case for building the new transmission line.  SCE needs CPUC's approval in order to pass along costs to build the new line to ratepayers.  CAISO argues that the retirement of other power plants in the region have freed up enough capacity on transmission lines to fully deliver the energy generated by the Mojave Solar project.  This doesn't count the Coolwater natural gas plant, that has also ceased operations but has not relinquished its rights to transmission lines.  If that plant also follows suit, even more capacity will be available.

SCE has put forward other reasons to build the Coolwater-Lugo Transmission line, but it had scrapped less destructive alternatives because it argued that it needed to serve the Mojave Solar project.  Hopefully CPUC will ask SCE to reconsider its options for transmission line upgrades in the desert.  There are plenty of existing transmission corridors that can be upgraded, and distributed generation and storage should be used to alleviate the need for new transmission lines in the first place.

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