By Mark Jaffe, EUCI energy writer
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) received the greenlight for a $6.7 billion plan to build 38 transmission projects over the next 10 years mainly to meet growing demands for electricity.
The CAISO Board of Governors approved the plan May 19. CAISO operates a wholesale electric market over 26,000 miles of transmission lines serving 32 million people.
CAISO transmission planning has been focused on accessing low-cost renewable generation, but more than half of the new projects are being built to meet forecasts for new load.
The plan is based on California Energy Commission projections that the state’s load will grow by 15 gigawatts (GW) by 2035 and 20 GW by 2040.
The installed generating and storage capacity will need to increase by more than 74 GW by 2035 and 107 GW by 2040, according to the energy commission.
“Along with projects from previous cycles, this year’s plan enables the grid to accommodate forecasted load growth and critical resource development,” CAISO said. “The increasing demand is being driven by building and transportation electrification, manufacturing, and large loads, including data centers.”
The initial cost of the plan was put at $7 billion and was then revised to $6.2 billion.
“We are constantly striving to find ways to meet system needs in the most affordable way possible,” Neil Millar, CAISO vice president for transmission planning, said in a statement.
“This year’s plan does that in a number of different ways while also making sure we have the right infrastructure in place to accommodate all of the new resources that are being added to the system,” Millar said.
For example, the plan includes 12 reconductoring projects that increase transmission capacity along existing transmission lines. Three reconductoring projects will employ advanced conductors, one of the grid-enhancing-technologies, or GETs, that CAISO considers in its planning.
Most of the remaining projects are needed to access resource development basins, serve load, address line congestion and meet state reliability and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Among the resources identified by the California Public Utilities Commission that need to be integrated into the CAISO grid are:
• 45 GW of solar generation in parts of California, Nevada, and Arizona
• 8 GW of in-state wind generation in Tehachapi
• More than 2 GW of geothermal development, primarily in the Imperial Valley and in southern Nevada
• The import of over 10 GW of wind generation from Idaho, Wyoming, and New Mexico
Among the other initiatives the grid has to accommodate are access for battery storage projects co-located with renewable generation projects across the state and stand-alone storage located closer to major load centers in the Los Angeles Basin, greater Bay area and San Diego.
There are also four transmission projects to address load growth in the San Francisco Bay area, including the Greater Bay Area Tesla – Trimble – Metcalf 230-kilovolt Corridor Expansion to supply the south Greater Bay and the Gates – Los Banos #3 500-kilovolt line to relieve congestion on Path 15 – a major north-south transmission corridor.
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