Duke-American Transmission Co. (DATC) on April 8 said that it will conduct an open solicitation process for up to 600 megawatts of bi-directional electric transmission capacity on the proposed San Luis Transmission Project being developed in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
The San Luis Transmission Project is a public-private partnership between Western Area Power Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and DATC to economically provide electricity for federal water supply deliveries to water customers in the San Joaquin Valley and Bay Area.
WAPA and the other public and private organizations on Jan. 31 said that they would move forward with the construction of the project.
DATC said that project beneficiaries include regional farmers, water agencies and electric wholesale customers. “Significantly, the economies of scale brought to the project also create transmission opportunities for renewable energy developers in the San Joaquin Valley,” it said.
The project involves construction of a new 85-mile, 230,000-volt transmission line connecting WAPA’s substation in Tracy to the San Luis, O’Neill and Dos Amigos substations in the Los Banos area, paralleling existing transmission facilities through non-irrigated ranch land.
The project will be part of WAPA’s Sierra-Nevada Region transmission system within the Balancing Authority of Northern California, offering transmission access to points of delivery adjacent to CAISO interties with WAPA/BANC. The project has received the required permits as part of the National Environmental Policy Act process and is projected to be in service in 2023.
DATC is financing the project in its entirety and will offer transmission capacity in accordance with the provisions of WAPA’s Open Access Transmission Tariff. DATC submitted a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on March 15 to establish conditions for the capacity release. The amount of capacity available will be contingent upon final determination of capacity needs to serve the Bureau of Reclamation.
DATC said it will accept proposals for the available transmission capacity during an open solicitation window from April 15 to May 15.
Additional information is available here.
