BY ALEX CANTATORE
Turlock played host to the Transmission Agency of Northern California on Thursday evening, as about 40 locals gathered to discuss the future of a mammoth utility project that looks to install more than 600 miles of high-voltage transmission lines across Northern California. Should the project proceed to completion in 2014, the TANC Transmission Project would link the Turlock Irrigation District to renewable energy sources around the state and improve reliability of the power grid.
“It is a proposal right now,” said Patrick Mealoy, of TANC. “It is not a commitment from my agency or our members that we will build this project.”
The 15 member utilities of the TANC, a not-for-profit agency that plans, develops, finances, constructs, and operates high-voltage transmission projects, came together to develop the TTC. The complete project includes two new subtransmission stations in Stanislaus County, one south of Oakdale and one east of Denair, and the wires to connect them to the statewide grid.
The TTP is projected to significantly increase the reliability of California’s electrical grid. The existing grid already experiences strain when some large hydroelectric projects are running, according to Mealoy.
Mealoy compared the TTP to a freeway system, where adding more lines is similar to adding more lanes, relieving the existing traffic.
“This project brings significant benefit to Northern California and the surrounding regions,” Mealoy said.
At this nascent stage, the potential routes for the high-voltage lines, whose power poles can be 150 feet tall and 2000 feet wide, are still being determined. Currently proposed routes were drafted based on map and satellite data, with no ground level analysis of the routes.
TANC is currently soliciting written feedback on routes for the proposed lines, which will be addressed as a part of the ongoing environmental impact study. Environmental issues related to the construction, and suggested alternatives, will be considered and directly responded to during this scoping process, ending April 30.
The only other opportunity for community feedback regarding the plan will come in the spring of 2011.
While the planning for the TTP is still in the early stages, complete build out could cost “a billion and a half-plus or minus a big number,” according to Mealoy, depending on the specifics of the ultimate plan. A final decision on whether or not to proceed with the project, which would be funded by member organizations including TID and the Modesto Irrigation District, will be made in 2011 or 2012.
The recent passage of Senate Bill 15 and an executive order from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could make the TTP even more essential. Utilities will be required to source 33 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2020.
According to Mealoy, meeting that mandate could require as many as half a dozen major transmission projects, most of which would be in Southern California.
The TTP would access as much as 85 percent of the identified renewable energy areas in Northern California. Two sites in Lassen County and an area near Round Mountain are projected to be directly attached to the TTP, while another area in Solano County is just a few miles from one proposed TTP route.
“Every utility is going to have to do 33 percent renewable energy,” Mealoy said.
“We’re going to need a lot more wire.”
Comments about the TTP can be left online at http://www.wapa.gov/transmission/ttp.htm e-mailed to TTPEIS@wapa.gov or mailed to David Young, NEPA Document Manager, Western Area Power Administration, 114 Parkshore Dr., Folsom, CA 95630.
To contact Alex Cantatore, e-mail acantatore@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2005.
Originally published in the Turlock Journal 4/4/2009.
Retrieved from the Turlock Journal Web site.