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Published Monday, March 9, 2009 | 12:07 p.m.
Updated Monday, March 9, 2009 | 2:06 p.m.
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From In Business Las Vegas:
NV Energy announced today it is seeking approval for a 235-mile transmission line that would connect the power grids of Northern and Southern Nevada for the first time.
The company requested permission from the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to build the One Nevada Transmission Line (ON Line), which will run from Ely to the Harry Allen substation located northeast of Las Vegas.
The commission has 135 days to respond to the request, and NV Energy said it tentatively plans to have the line in service by mid-2012.
NV Energy CEO and President Michael Yakira announced last month that plans for a coal-fired plant near Ely had been indefinitely delayed, but said the company remained committed to build the transmission line as a means of enhancing the state’s renewable energy production.
“This transmission line will allow customers to benefit from the abundant renewable resources located all across our state,” Yackira said in a statement. “ON Line will provide the opportunity to keep more renewable energy in Nevada for the benefit of Nevadans, thereby improving the environment and diversifying the economy.”
Yackira said the transmission line will figure heavily into NV Energy’s efforts to comply with a mandate from the Nevada Legislature that 20 percent of the company’s power portfolio come from renewable sources by 2015.
Roberto Denis, senior vice president of energy supply for NV Energy, said the 20 percent standard applies individually to the north and south systems, and because the company has invested heavily in wind and geothermal sources in remote areas of Northern Nevada, it needs a way to share that energy between systems so that both can meet the requirement.
“We’re developing a lot of energy where people are not, so we need to move it around to where it is useful,” he said.
The line will also provide a way for proposed wind farms in Spring Valley and Steptoe Valley to link into the state’s power grid, Denis said.
Denis said the line is a multi-faceted approach to renewable energy in that it will clear the way for future projects while ensuring the efficient distribution of existing projects. Both approaches will be needed, he said, to get the utilities from the nine percent renewable energy standard they reached at the end of 2008 to 20 percent by the end of 2015 (the percentage is calculated at the end of each year).
“I think this line is just absolutely critical to meet the state requirement regarding a renewable energy portfolio,” he said.
Most of the transmission line will be built on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management, Denis said. NV Energy had submitted the draft environmental impact statement that is required for projects built on federal land as part of the application for the Ely plant in 2006, he said, but has asked the BLM to separate the transmission line into its own impact statement so that it can move forward.
He said NV Energy should have that statement back before the end of the year.
"This transmission line will allow customers to benefit from the abundant renewable resources located all across our state," Yackira said in a statement. "ON Line will provide the opportunity to keep more renewable energy in Nevada for the benefit of Nevadans, thereby improving the environment and diversifying the economy."
More crap. They will end up selling most of it to California. THERE ARE GOOD WAYS TO STOP THESE BIG POWER LINES! Transmission line that plow thorugh wet lands, national wildlife refuges and tortoise habitat are not good for the environment. And let's not forget the 3 500 megawatt natural gas plants that will replace the 1500 megawatt coalplant that was proposed. Carbon is carbon. We can call this one the climate change transmission line and put a statue of Senator Reid next to it! But those wind farms will make the climate change activists simply not think about the facts. Feel good politics for slow people?
Nuclear is the only real clean power source in the 1,000 megawatt+ category. We need more nukes!
Better hurry up before Harry Reid stops the ability of States like Nevada to plan and locate the transmission line that are needed for the state.
We can't do this. There must be a desert mouse or a yucca plant that needs saving along this route. I don't want to see it from my house and I am sure no one else does either. We need clean energy but someone has to figure out a better way to get it to the customers because I don't like seeing wires and we can't bury them, that's too much desert to disturb. Why can't Obama just make them send it some other way. Ah,,, it's so good to argue for the green and correct way to live. Make everyone turn off the air conditioners when it gets hot, then we don't need so much electricity.
This is a strong, forward looking action.