By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Two electric utilities and a federal energy agency with millions of customers in eight western states have reached a tentative agreement centered on a new energy transmission line connecting their power grids.

Idaho Power, PacifiCorp and the Bonneville Power Administration announced the complex proposal Wednesday ahead of the expected 2026 completion of a 500-kilovolt, 290-mile transmission line from eastern Oregon to southwestern Idaho.

The entities said the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line will help them meet increasing demand and support their clean-energy goals while increasing the reliability and safety of the region’s transmission system. Energy will move in both directions on the line.

The agreement still needs to be finalized and approved by regulators.

“This arrangement paves the way toward a promising and economic solution for serving all of the participants and supports efforts to meet the region’s clean energy goals,” said Kim Thompson, Bonneville Power Administration’s vice president of Northwest Requirements Marketing.

The Portland, Oregon-headquartered BPA is a U.S. Department of Energy agency that markets electricity generated at 31 hydroelectric facilities operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Columbia River and its tributaries. It also markets power from the Columbia Generating Station, a commercial nuclear facility north of Richland, Washington.

The BPA markets the energy to public utility districts, municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives in eight states.

Boise, Idaho-based Idaho Power is a public utility that operates as a state-regulated monopoly. It has about 600,000 customers in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. Most of its energy is produced from its 17 hydroelectric facilities on the Snake River and its tributaries. The company plans to phase out coal-fired power by 2028 and provide only clean energy by 2045. The new transmission line is a key part of that strategy.

PacifiCorp is a regulated public utility with two operating divisions, Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power, that combined have about two million customers in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.

PacifiCorp would benefit with the deal by improving its ability to move power into its central Oregon service area. It will also acquire Idaho Power transmission assets across southern Idaho that will increase the company’s ability to transfer power between the eastern and western parts of its service area. The company’s long-range planning includes significantly expanding its wind and solar energy, and battery storage. The company is looking to eventually move away from coal energy in the 2040s.

BPA is guided through statutes created by Congress. Idaho Power and PacifiCorp are both regulated by state utility commissions in the states they operate as well as by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Notably, the transmission line connects deeply conservative Idaho with the more liberal Oregon.

Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little, a rancher, has publicly recognized climate change, and his recently released proposed budget includes money to deal with those realities on state-owned land.

Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, as a member of the Western Governors’ Association, has pushed to improve the region’s electric-vehicle charging infrastructure.

Under the proposal between the three energy entities, PacifiCorp will own 55 percent of the new transmission line and Idaho Power 45 percent. BPA is transferring its ownership interest in the line to Idaho Power and will not participate in its construction. BPA will acquire transmission service over Idaho Power’s transmission system, including the Boardman-to-Hemingway line.

The proposal also includes the transfer of some assets between Idaho Power and PacifiCorp that each entity said will strengthen their systems and provide access to key energy markets to meet growing demand.

“This agreement solidifies and simplifies a path forward for a project that will help us continue our century-long tradition of reliable, affordable, clean energy,” said Mitch Colburn, Idaho Power’s vice president of planning, engineering and construction.

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By DICK MASON
The Observer

LA GRANDE, Ore. (AP) — Construction of the Boardman to Hemingway (B2H) electric transmission line might do what Father Time’s corrosive hand has not — destroy the last remaining remnants of the Oregon Trail in Union County.

This is the fear of Lanetta Paul, a passionate Oregon Trail supporter who lives in the Morgan Lake area. Paul, who has led many people on tours of the Oregon Trail from the area near her home to Hilgard State Park, seven miles away, is among those working to have the proposed B2H route changed so that it is far from Union County’s Oregon Trail ruts, allowing them to remain a tangible link to this region’s story.

This is critical, she said, for there will be no second chances when it comes to preserving what’s left of the Oregon Trail.

“Once it is gone, it is gone forever,” Paul said. “It is a piece of history lost.”

John Williams, who also lives near Morgan Lake Road, shares Paul’s sense of urgency. He owns land with Oregon Trail ruts and said those and all ruts between the Morgan Lake area and Hilgard State Park are at risk because a portion of the B2H transmission line may run along this route under a plan proposed by PacifiCorp, the Bonneville Power Administration and Idaho Power, who would pay for and construct the B2H line, which would extend from Boardman to the Hemingway substation near Melba, Idaho.

Williams said the proposed plan calls for the transmission line and its poles to be 125 feet outside the Oregon Trail on either side, but fears this is close enough to pose a threat to the historical remnants because of the heavy equipment that would have to be brought in to construct the massive transmission line. He said if the equipment ran over the ruts, it would cause irreparable damage.

Gail Carbiener of Bend, a member of the Oregon-California Trail Association, shares Williams’ concern.
“(The proposed B2H line) can’t help but have an impact,” Carbiener said.

The Bend resident noted the equipment brought in would be enormous, with some items such as cranes weighing close to 100,000 pounds.

“It would be huge,” he said.

More than ruts are at risk by the proposed B2H line. Williams said the proposed project’s plan calls for a large tower to be built in the middle of an area that was a campsite for Oregon Trail pioneers. He said numerous artifacts have been found at the site with a metal detector within the past two years during searches he assisted. Items found include oxen shoes, a bracket for a wagon and many nails. Williams said nails are commonly found along the Oregon Trail.

“It has been called the trail of nails,” he said.

The La Grande resident said he fears if a tower is placed at the campsite, the Oregon Trail artifacts buried underneath it may be lost forever.

The B2H transmission line poles would be over 100 feet high, Carbiener said. This would be much greater than the height of most power lines in the area and a great concern to Carbiener. He said such towering poles would detract from the setting of the Oregon Trail. He also said the presence of power lines of any size would be a detriment in some portions of the Oregon Trail.

Carbiener notes today there are still passages at and near the Blue Mountain Crossing Interpretive Center 16 miles west of La Grande where the Oregon Trail can be seen in a setting where there are no power lines, buildings or roads.

“You can walk there today and see exactly what the Oregon Trail pioneers saw,” Carbiener said.

He said the B2H transmission line, if installed as proposed, would rob people of this opportunity in some areas.

“It would destroy view sheds,” he said.

A statement sent to The Observer from Idaho Powder archaeologist Shane Baker said with regard to the Oregon Trail and B2H indicates that the company is sensitive to the concerns expressed by Williams, Carbiener, Paul and others.

“Idaho Power is very aware of the historic significance of the Oregon Trail, as well as other historic trails and resources in the area of the proposed project, and did everything reasonably possible to protect and consider the trail during the process of selecting a proposed route. We’ve spent time documenting where trail segments occur within the vicinity of the project and in planning how to avoid and protect the trail.

We also met with landowners, stakeholders, including trail group representatives, to hear their concerns and solicit their input,” the statement read.

Idaho Powder also noted in its statement that federal and state laws require it to take all historic resources into consideration during the planning and permitting process, and to protect them.

“There’s a federal and state process that must be followed that protects historic and other natural resources,” according to the statement. “Our intent is to minimize impacts to all resources. During design and construction, we would avoid placing towers on any identified trail segments, or ruts, and site the project in a manner that reduces direct and indirect impacts. In some instances, mitigation may be an appropriate method to offset impacts.”

Idaho Power officials noted the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just outside Baker City and the Birch Creek area in Malheur County are examples where several steps were taken in its route proposal to protect the Oregon Trail. The company said it is committed to minimizing visual impacts by using lower tower designs that are more consistent with existing transmission towers.

The statement also said Idaho Power intends to do more to address the concerns about B2Hs proximity to the Oregon Trail: “We plan to continue working with the community, landowners and trail group representatives to identify other potential mitigation ideas; such as public education and outreach by constructing and installing interpretive signs about the trail and its history.”

Carbiener said the Oregon-California Trails Association is taking steps to protect the Oregon Trail, such as attempting to get all portions of the historical trail along the B2H route put on the National Register of Historic Places. The Oregon-California Trails Association is now preparing an application for this.

Carbiener hopes this will help sway PacifiCorp, the Bonneville Power Administration and Idaho Power to alter the proposed B2H route so the Oregon Trail is not impacted.

“It may not legally keep them from following the B2H route now proposed,” Carbiener said, “but it may discourage them.”

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The United States Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it would fast track the permitting and construction of seven pilot power transmission line projects, including two in Oregon.

The Boardman-Hemingway line and the Cascade Crossing Transmission Project will connect the Willamette Valley to Southwest Idaho. The move would create thousands of jobs and upgrade the nation’s power transmission infrastructure. Cascade Crossing is expected to generate 450 jobs and Boardman-Hemingway is expected to create 500.

Because of the multi-state nature of the projects wherein numerous players are involved in assuring that environmental, social and economic factors are addressed before construction can take place, permitting such projects can be time consuming and onerous.  According to the , no fewer than nine federal agencies are involved in permitting these projects. To expedite the process, the Obama administration recently formed the to streamline inter-agency cooperation.

Nancy Suttle, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, remarked on Wednesday:

The President wants to get America working again.  He is committed to cutting red tape and making immediate investments to put people to work modernizing our roads, bridges, airports, and energy systems.”

With the nation’s infrastructure in a bad state and thousands of construction industry workers out of work, this is great news indeed.

courtesy of Boardman to Hemingway Transmission Line Project

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Renewable energy developments in the Northwest may soon benefit from more flexibility in the transmission planning process.

The past several years have been marked by an increase of wind power developments, partially because of laws requiring utilities to add renewable energy to their portfolios. The Bonneville Power Administration, which controls three-quarters of the Northwest’s high-voltage transmission lines, has been working to figure out how to prepare for the new wind power.

But not all of the projects that generated transmission service requests on the BPA’s lines will come into fruition – a reality that the federal agency is now addressing in new ways.

The BPA in 2008 implemented a program to track interest in its transmission lines with a process called Network Open Season. When an energy company decides it wants to use the BPA’s transmission lines, it signs a Precedent Transmission Service Agreement and makes a financial commitment. Developers can enter into these agreements before, during or after their projects are constructed. They can defer transmission service for up to five years, but those agreements – to this point – cannot be modified or terminated.

Approximately 60 percent of the requests for transmission service since 2008 have come from wind developers – a total of 11,722 megawatts. The BPA responded by planning to add four major transmission lines to accommodate the potential energy developments.

But the complex planning process can require years for both the transmission lines and the wind developments, and in the meantime the economy has worsened, the queue for transmission service has lengthened and the renewable energy market has changed. Although developers signed the transmission service agreements and provided financial commitments when they requested service, BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said that some developers this past summer expressed uncertainty about going forward with their transmission requests as planned.

Confidentiality agreements prevented Johnson from sharing the names of those developers.

“We have been wondering how much wind in the back part of transmission service queue may or may not materialize,” he said. “We want to build the right project in the right place at the right time, and we need to know what the folks on the generation side are planning so we can come up with the right path forward.”

The four proposed transmission lines would cost the BPA a total of $787 million. After meeting with developers and other regional wind interests at the Northwest Wind Integration Forum in June, the BPA asked developers if they would be interested in terminating or modifying their transmission service agreements. In total, developers expressed concerns about 3,028 megawatts, and caused the agency to reconsider one of the four major transmission lines, as well as the terms of its contracts with developers in general.

“Given the current economic slowdown, it seemed prudent from both BPA’s and the wind developers’ perspectives to reanalyze the situation and consider whether or not to make that investment in specific transmission projects now or to wait and see how things change in the future,” said Cameron Yourkowski, senior policy manager of the Renewable Northwest Project.

The BPA in March announced that it would build the 40-mile Central Ferry-Lower Monumental line running through eastern Washington, but has slowed its construction plans. The $90 million project would provide 1,595 megawatts of new service, the vast majority to accommodate wind power. But the BPA decided not to move forward with preconstruction work based on its conversations with developers.

However, the BPA has moved forward with construction of the Big Eddy-Knight project, a $185 million, 28-mile line that will move electricity across the Cascade Mountains, from the west to the east.

“We had good certainty that all the revenue would materialize, and it made sense to build (the Big Eddy-Knight line),” Johnson said. “But we got some indications from customers with (service requests) related to the Central Ferry-Lower Monumental line that did not have as much certainty.”

Nevertheless, the BPA is bound to transmission service agreements with other developers. One, Puget Sound Energy, recently completed assembly of 149 turbines at the Lower Snake River wind farm near Walla Walla, Wash. The BPA built the Central Ferry substation to accommodate the wind farm, which is expected to come online in April 2012, but the specific line that will carry the generated power is not determined yet, according to PSE spokesman Roger Thompson.

“We are obviously interested in the Monumental line that is on the planning horizon for BPA,” he said.

The utility has a contract with the BPA that promises 250 megawatts of transmission capacity, although the project could generate up to 343 megawatts.

“They’ve expressed confidence that they’ll be able to provide the capacity we need,” Thompson said.

The BPA is analyzing customer feedback and developing new cost projections for each project, taking into account the potential terminations and modifications to developers’ service requests. The agency on Wednesday plans to release those assessments as well as refined principles of the Network Open Season process as a whole. Its goal is to complete the reform process by the end of the year.

“The (Network Open Season) policy is working well and I hope it will prove flexible enough to accommodate major changes in the economics of projects and the demand for energy in general,” Yourkowski said.

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The Bonneville Power Administration announced on Friday that it will start construction on a $185 million power transmission line that will run from the The Dalles north to the Goldendale, Wash. The project will be funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The 28-mile, 500 Kilovolt is expected to create 100 construction jobs and help the BPA handle future expansion of wind turbine energy production in the area. Lauren Azar, senior advisor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, that:

By integrating renewable energy sources onto the electrical grid now, we are helping to develop a new American economy powered by clean, secure and affordable energy sources.”

But the announcement of the Big Eddy-Knight line construction came days after a number of wind farm projects were stalled in Washington, a move that stopped preconstruction work on the $91 million transmission that will run from the very southeast of Washington to the Walla Walla, Wash., area. Though the region’s power transmission lines have been strained in the past decade by the added power production from wind farms, the industry still seems to be beset by logistical hurdles.

by McD22 via Flicker

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As players in the Southwest invest tens of millions of dollars in brand new power lines to transmit electricity from the region’s burgeoning solar farms, utilities in the Northwest are left blowing in the wind.

According to the trade publication Engineering Record-News, 62 wind farm projects in southern Washington, totaling 3,000 megawatts, either to get service from the Bonneville Power Administration‘s new transmission line.

In light of this, the BPA said it has stopped preliminary work on the $90 million project, called the Central Ferry-Lower Monumental Transmission Line. This news comes on the heels of an announcement by the BPA’s southwestern counterpart – Western Area Power Administration – to hire contractors to upgrade and build parts for a $91 transmission line to transport electricity for solar farms in the Southwest.

The wavering of the 62 wind farm projects hits the development of the Central Ferry-Lower Monumental transmission line hard; they account for roughly 24 percent of all projects requesting transmission service from the BPA since 2008. BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said in the ENR article that if the agency still thinks the power line is needed, it will reissue a request for pre-construction work and the power line could be operational by 2013 as originally intended.

by cellanr via Flickr

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The Bonneville Power Administration is tentatively set to begin construction Sept. 19 on a 28-mile transmission line. The line will run from the Big Eddy Substation near The Dalles to a new substation four miles northwest of Goldendale, Wash.

The project is within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, so the plans have gone through extensive public review, beginning in June 2009. The final plans are the result of hundreds of comments that assessed the impacts of three proposed routes.

BPA claims that the 500-kilovolt line will provide up to 100 construction jobs, including local electricians, carpenters, welders and other Oregon trades workers. The project will cost approximately $185 million and is financed in part with borrowing authority included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The U.S. Forest Service will conduct a consistency review of the final plans, and construction will begin after contract terms and other permits and approvals are granted.

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Transmission line projects

Cascade Crossing
Owner: Portland General Electric; possible partnership with PacifiCorp and Idaho Power
Route: 500-kilovolt transmission line – 187 miles of double circuit and 22 miles of single circuit – running from Boardman to Salem
Cost: $823 million
Status: PGE plans to file its application for site certification to the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council in early 2011. A draft environmental impact statement is expected in 2012.

Energy Gateway
Owner: PacifiCorp
Route: 2,000 miles of 500-kilovolt, 345-kilovolt and 230-kilovolt transmission lines from Utah through Wyoming, Idaho and into Oregon.
Cost: $6 billion
Status: The first segment, stretching between Utah and Idaho, was completed for $830 million.

McNary-John Day transmission line
Owner: Bonneville Power Administration
Route: 79 miles of 500-kilovolt transmission line starting in Oregon, crossing the Columbia River below the McNary Dam, running parallel to the Columbia River in Washington through Benton and Klickitat counties and back into Oregon near the John Day Dam.
Cost: Undetermined*
Status: The project has been approved for construction, which will last approximately four years.

Big Eddy-Knight transmission project
Owner: Bonneville Power Administration
Route: Approximately 27 miles of 500-kilovolt transmission line between Big Eddy Substation in The Dalles and a proposed Knight substation four miles northwest of Goldendale, Wash.
Cost: Undetermined*
Status: A draft environmental impact statement is available for review and comment through January 2011. A final EIS will be issued in summer 2011, when the BPA will decide whether to construct the transmission line.

I-5 corridor reinforcement
Owner: Bonneville Power Administration
Route: Proposed 70 miles of 500-kilovolt transmission line between Troutdale and Castle Rock, Wash.
Cost: Undetermined*
Status: The BPA is looking at alternative route alignments. A draft environmental impact statement is expected by fall 2011, followed by a final EIS in fall 2012. The agency in 2013 will decide whether to construct the transmission line.

* The BPA estimates that if it were to construct all 225 miles of proposed transmission lines, the cumulative cost would be around $900 million.

More than $2 billion worth of transmission lines are planned throughout Oregon in the next decade, according to the state’s major utilities – PacifiCorp, Portland General Electric and Idaho Power. They say their systems cannot handle increased demand and new wind, geothermal and biomass projects coming online.

After Oregon’s hydropower dams were constructed in the 1930s, aluminum smelters looked to tap into cheap power along the Columbia River. That led to construction of the transmission network the state uses today, according to Mike Mikolaitis, director of transmission projects for Portland General Electric. Today, however, those lines are increasingly congested.

“Transmission lines are like the freeway of our electrical system,” Mikolaitis said. “At rush hour, there’s a limit to what can go on the freeway without causing a backup. Our electrical transmission system in Oregon is congested and inadequate to deliver most of the renewable energy being built in the eastern part of the state.”

PGE’s proposed solution is Cascade Crossing, a 500-kilovolt, 187-mile-long transmission line that would cut across a national forest, tribal lands and private parcels between Boardman and Salem. The $823 million project is the largest of its kind to be proposed in the last 30 years, according to Deb Schallert, head of permitting for Cascade Crossing.

“In my lifetime, I’ve never permitted a major transmission line like this,” Schallert said. “Public-land stakeholders want to know what habitat impacts are at stake. Private landowners want to know why we need to use land they own. The Warm Springs Tribe is a sovereign nation and has its own process to comment on the route. The challenge we’ve faced consistently is educating people about why we need new transmission.”

PGE predicts a 45 percent increase in electricity demand over the next 20 years, according to its Integrated Resource Plan. PacifiCorp says transmission line development over the next 20 to 25 years is essential for grid reliability to be maintained. Since 2007, PacifiCorp has planned its own major transmission project, Energy Gateway, a $6 billion, 2,000-mile-long transmission line project that will snake through Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon.

John Cupparo, PacifiCorp’s vice president of transmission, said for the last three years he has stayed up late at night thinking about how to implement such a gigantic project. Energy Gateway will pass through federal lands, requiring years of studies of cultural and environmental issues along the proposed route. The timing of those federal processes, Cupparo said, will determine whether the project is delivered on time and within the budget.

“There are so many different stakeholders and differing perspectives on what the right answer is,” Cupparo said. “These are not cheap projects; we just brought in the first segment of Energy Gateway for $830 million. As the Bureau of Land Management and others work through all of the environmental, cultural and other issues, it takes time. And we need certainty that we can get the capacity installed on time.”

The Bonneville Power Administration has approximately $900 million of transmission line projects in environmental review, according to company spokesman Doug Johnson, mostly because of transmission service requests for wind projects in Oregon and Washington. The BPA, a federal entity, can condemn property or use eminent domain, but the agency has been trying to avoid doing so, Johnson said.

“We only use eminent domain as a last resort,” Johnson said. “You want to meet electrical needs, but you also need to respond to concerns from communities along the way. That’s why public process is so important.”

Mikolaitis added that not building transmission lines is not an option. As more entities connect to Oregon’s grid, the possibility of popping circuits becomes more likely.

“We’ve already seen reliability issues with our transmission during wind and ice storms,” Mikolaitis said. “You have to remember: The entire western U.S. shares a grid. If there’s a problem on the transmission level in Oregon, it could result in a blackout over a number of states. There’s a reason utilities are doing this collectively, not just individually.”

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