FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November
9, 2004
MEDIA CONTACT:
LaVerne Kyriss, 720-962-7051, kyriss@wapa.gov
PATH 15 PROJECT FACILITIES MOVE INTO
TESTING PHASE
FOLSOM, Calif.—A new
84-mile, 500-kV
transmission line running between Los Banos and Gates substations in
Central
California will soon move into testing and then commercial operations,
say
project officials.
“Western (Area Power Administration)
plans to release the line itself for testing on or about Nov. 23,”
reported Tom
Boyko, Western’s manager for the $270 million Path 15 Upgrade Project
to build
a third transmission line and complete other work to relieve the energy
bottleneck between northern and southern California.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
plans to begin end-to-end testing on Nov. 29 and expects to release the
line
for commercial operations within two weeks of the testing start date. The line will add an additional 1,500
megawatts of capacity to the state’s high-voltage power grid. This is
enough
electricity to serve about 1.5 million households.
The Path 15 Upgrade Project is a
public-private partnership among Western, which owns the line and is
managing
the line’s construction; PG&E, which owns the substations and is
managing
upgrades in its facilities; and Trans-Elect Company’s New Transmission
Development Co., which provided private capital to fund the work. The
three
project participants will share in the line’s capacity, based on their
investment in the project. The line will be operated by the California
Independent System Operator.
For more information about the
project, visit www.wapa.gov/sn/initiatives/path15/.
Western Area Power Administration annually markets
and transmits more
than 10,000 megawatts of power from hydroelectric powerplants owned and
operated by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers in
15 western and central states. It is part of the Department of
Energy.
-30-
Serving the
West with Federal hydropower