Welcome to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) website for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review of the proposed construction of The Nevada Hydro Company Inc.'s (TNHC) Talega-Escondido/Valley-Serrano (TE/VS) 500 kV Interconnect Project. An application for this project was submitted to the CPUC on October 9, 2007 (A.07-10-005). This site provides access to public documents and information relevant to the CEQA review process.

Background

TNHC has filed an application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) with the CPUC to construct the TE/VS 500 kV Interconnect Project. The CPUC is the CEQA lead agency for the TE/VS transmission line project .

The TE/VS project is necessary in order to:

1. Provide a transmission interconnection from the proposed Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage (LEAPS) hydroelectric facility to the transmission systems of Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E);
   
   
2. Interconnect the SCE and SDG&E transmission systems and facilitate wholesale bulk power transfers between those systems and from neighboring areas and those systems.

The TE/VS 500 kV Transmission Line, as proposed by TNHC will be a 500 kV alternating current regional interconnection transmission line with a nominal design capacity of 1,000 MW. The transmission line will be approximately 30 miles in length and will extend from the proposed LEAPS facility in Lake Elsinore, southward to SDG&E's existing 230 kV Talega-Escondido transmission line in San Diego County, and northward to SCE's existing 500 kV Valley Serrano transmission line in Riverside County. The interconnection with SDG&E will be between SDG&E's existing Talega and Escondido substations at a new substation in the vicinity of Camp Pendleton. The interconnection with SCE's network will be at a point between SCE's Valley and Serrano Substations, at a new substation in the vicinity of Lee Lake. In addition to the improvements described above, TNHC's TE/VS Interconnect Project will require numerous upgrades to the networks of SDG&E and SCE.

Application and Proponent's Environmental Assessment (PEA)

The application and the Draft PEA for the TE/VS project were filed with the CPUC on October 9, 2007. The documents may be viewed here. The CPUC sent a comment letter on the Draft PEA on November 16, 2007. The applicant revised the PEA and filed a Final PEA to the CPUC on February 8, 2008. The CPUC formally reviewed the PEA for completeness, and sent a deficiency letter on March 6, 2008. After a subsequent meeting with the Applicant, the CPUC sent a letter regarding needed biological surveys on March 25, 2008.

For Additional Information

To request additional information regarding this project, please contact the following: