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 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.

TNHC states that 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 the two systems and from neighboring areas to those systems.

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 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 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 SDG&E and SCE systems.

Application and Proponent's Environmental Assessment (PEA)

The application and PEA for the TE/VS project were filed with the CPUC on October 9, 2007. The CPUC sent a comment letter (10.0 MB) on the PEA on November 16, 2007. In response to the comment letter, the applicant filed a Revised PEA with the CPUC on February 8, 2008. The CPUC formally reviewed the PEA for completeness, and sent an incompleteness 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.

On July 22, 2008, the Applicant responded to the incompleteness letter by submitting a Second Revised PEA to the CPUC. The CPUC formally reviewed the PEA for completeness, and on August 18 sent an incompleteness letter requesting supplemental information from the Applicant.

On September 24, 2008, the Applicant requested that the CPUC review an informal draft PEA Supplement to ensure its completeness prior to formally filing the document. CPUC conducted an informal review of this document and sent a memorandum to the Applicant on October 20, 2008. The informal draft PEA supplement was provided to the CPUC in hardcopy format. Interested parties may request a copy at the phone or address given below.

On November 13, 2008, the Applicant formally responded to the August 18 incompleteness letter by submitting a PEA Supplement (dated November 12). The CPUC formally reviewed the PEA for completeness, and on December 6 sent an incompleteness letter (dated December 5) requesting further supplemental information from the Applicant.

On December 30, 2008, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued a Ruling ordering the Applicant to provide, by February 17, 2009, "a full amended application with a complete PEA that complies with all the Commission Energy Division deficiency requirements for conducting CEQA analysis; to provide in comments a compelling argument why the Commission should not dismiss the present application without prejudice; or voluntarily to request the Commission to dismiss the present application without prejudice." The Ruling is available at the following links: Ruling; Attachment 1 (10.0MB); Attachment 2; Attachment 3; Attachment 4.

On February 17, 2009, the Applicant filed a revised Application and PEA (dated February 16, 2009) in response to the PEA incompleteness letter of December 5, 2008, and the ALJ Ruling of December 30, 2008.

For Additional Information

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