SCE completes USD-740m transmission upgrade to bring more renewables

Electric utility Southern California Edison (SCE) on Monday announced the completion of the West of Devers transmission upgrade project, which provides increased transmission capacity to carry more renewable energy from desert areas in the eastern part of the state to Southern California population centres.

According to the announcement, the project will support more than 7,000 MW of renewable and battery energy storage resources in the coming years.

The upgrade project involved removing and replacing power lines along the existing 48-mile (77 km) corridor from the Devers substation near Palm Springs to the Vista and San Bernardino substations in Grand Terrace and San Bernardino, respectively, boosting transmission capacity from 1,600 MW to 4,800 MW.

Kevin Payne, president and chief executive of SCE, an Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, said that while distributed energy resources will help decarbonise the power infrastructure, “large-scale generation and reliable delivery of renewable energy will be vital to achieve California’s ambitious climate goals.”

The upgraded line was completed in May. SCE filed applications to build the project in 2013. It secured all environmental permits and regulatory approvals in 2017 and launched construction in early 2018. Total cost came in at USD 740 million (EUR 607.8m). Under a deal that allowed SCE to build the project across the Morongo Indian Reservation, Morongo Transmission is to invest USD 400 million later this year, following regulatory approval.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.821)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!