Edison International Unit Wins Approval For Calif Transmission
Line
By Cassandra Sweet, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- California regulators Friday gave Edison
International's (EIX) utility the green light to build a $537 million
transmission line to ship renewable power from the California desert to the Los
Angeles area.
The project includes 170 miles of high-voltage transmission lines that would
transport power from Blythe, Calif., near the Arizona state line, to Riverside
County, southeast of Los Angeles. The new line would have 1,200 megawatts of
capacity, enough to supply about 780,000 homes, Southern California Edison said.
The proposed 500-kilovolt line originally extended into Arizona. But
resistance from Arizona regulators and changing economics led Edison to conclude
that a California-only line would be best.
The California Public Utilities Commission had approved the earlier project
proposal, called Devers-Palo Verde 2, but Edison needed the agency's approval
for the revised project.
Several thousand megawatts of renewable and natural gas-fired power generation
is under development in California, including more than 6,000 megawatts of
renewable power projects whose developers have expressed an interest in shipping
power on Edison's proposed line, according to the CPUC.
Edison said the new line could be placed in service by 2013, assuming the
company receives all necessary licensing and regulatory approvals.
California utilities are required to use renewable power for a fifth of the
power they sell by 2010, with the mandate increasing to one-third renewables by
2020 under pending regulations. The requirements, part of California's 2006 plan
to combat climate change, is driving growth in the state's renewable energy
market, the largest in the U.S.
-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-20-091938ET
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