Antelope Valley Clearview Transmission Project – Underground
While the Alberta Government, Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), and Alberta electricity transmission industry refuse to seriously consider underground transmission, there are positive stories elsewhere in the world.
The High Desert Power Authority (HDPA) will be building the Antelope Valley Clearview Transmission Line, a high voltage underground power line that will stretch nearly 40 miles across the Antelope Valley in southwestern California (Tehachapi News ). The project will connect North Los Angeles County and East Kern County projects into the statewide grid, and will be capable of delivering more than 2,000 megawatts of renewable solar and wind generation from the Antelope Valley and eastern Kern County.
The California cities of Pittsburg and Lancaster, along with the support from Kern County, have partnered to form the HDPA for the purpose of creating independent transmission projects, of which the Antelope Valley Clearview Transmission Line is the first. Local politicians lauded the new underground project as incurring less environmental impacts and connecting naturally occurring alternative energy resources to the power grid that feeds into the Los Angeles area. The City of Lancaster is noted as the “Alternative Energy Capital of the World”, having signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Beautiful Earth Group in 2011 wherein the city committed to become a “Net Zero City”. Net Zero Cities produce as much energy from sustainable sources, such as solar energy, as they consume (News Blaze).
The Pittsburg Power Company, the City of Pittsburg’s municipal utility, has broad power development and operational experience, having developed the Trans Bay Cable Project which is a $500 million, 53-mile underwater transmission project that provides power to nearly half of the City of San Francisco.
When will the Alberta Government, AESO, AUC and Alberta transmission industry join the 21st century and start burying high voltage power lines? It is a well-known fact that underground power lines eliminate or significantly reduce the negative health, safety, environmental, property value, visual, tourism, agriculture and other economic development impacts of overhead lines. And, when will the Alberta Government and Alberta power generation industry start to seriously consider alternative energy sources that reduce our carbon footprint, rather than building more coal-fired power plants that pollute our atmosphere?
