Southern California Edison (SCE)(NYSE: EIX) has completed the first phase of a major renewable energy transmission project in California.
The Tehachapi Renewable Transmission
Project is the first major California transmission project built specifically to
access renewable energy. When all phases are developed, high-voltage
transmission lines will be capable of delivering 4,500 megawatts (MW) of
electricity from wind farms, solar and other generation resources in
Northern Los Angeles and Eastern Kern counties.
The first three segments, which are
capable of delivering 700 MW of renewable energy, are now complete.
The California
Public Utilities Commission last December approved SCE’s application to
build segments 4-11. Construction is scheduled to begin
later this year, pending final approval from federal land agencies.
The full project is expected to be operational in
2015. The project spans from eastern Kern County to the city of Ontario
in San Bernardino County. It will cross portions of the Antelope Valley,
the Angeles National Forest, the San Gabriel Valley and the western
Inland Empire.
In addition to bringing significant wind energy resources to the California transmission grid, the Tehachapi project is expected to improve the reliability and ease transmission constraints into the Los Angeles basin.
During the next five years, SCE forecasts that it will invest $21.5 billion to expand the region’s power grid. A total of $5.5 billion, or 26% of this investment, is directed toward the transmission grid.
The Tehachapi project is one of 11 new transmission lines regulators say
are needed to help California reach its ambitious renewable energy
goals.
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