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.10-07-001). This website 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 500 kV transmission line, as proposed by TNHC, would be a 500 kV alternating current regional interconnection transmission line with a nominal design capacity of 1,000 MW. The transmission line would provide a transmission interconnection from the proposed Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage (LEAPS) hydroelectric energy storage facility to the transmission systems of Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), and it would interconnect the SCE and SDG&E systems.

The transmission line would be approximately 30 miles long and would extend from the proposed LEAPS facility in the City of 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 would 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 would 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 would require numerous upgrades to the SDG&E and SCE systems.

Application and Proponent's Environmental Assessment (PEA)

In October of 2007, an application (A.07-10-005; A.09-02-12) and PEA for the TE/VS project were filed with the CPUC. However, on April 16, 2009, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued a decision dismissing the application without prejudice as a result of several deficiencies in the PEA:

Decision of ALJ Karen V. Clopton
Attachment 1 (26.4MB)
Attachment 2
Attachment 3
Attachment 4
Attachment 5

A new application and PEA were filed on July 6, 2010. This application and PEA were deemed complete by the CPUC on August 5, 2010. The CPUC acknowledged this with a letter to TNHC.

For Additional Information

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