Sempra's Mexico Plant Target of Sunrise Opponents

Apr 25 - North County Times

Utility officials say San Diego County needs a giant new power transmission line through the backcountry to keep the lights on and bring cleaner, more sustainable energy to the region. But critics say San Diego Gas & Electric Co. has another motive for building the proposed $1.4 billion Sunrise Powerlink project ---- to maximize the profit potential for a Mexico power plant.

At every turn, power-line opponents are hammering SDG&E with the accusation that the transmission line is not meant to tap into developing so-called renewable energy in Imperial County, but rather to develop markets for the natural-gas-fired power plant its corporate parent, Sempra Energy, built just across the border in 2003.

San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose district takes in Ramona and many of the backcountry communities targeted for the line, is among those who subscribe to the theory that there is a direct connection between Sunrise and the parent firm's power plant.

"Many point to Sempra Energy's 600-megawatt plant in Mexicali and see the proposed line as a veiled attempt to profit from cheap Baja power by selling it to customers north of SDG&E's service territory," Jacob said.

SDG&E officials say the theory could not be farther from the truth.

Jim Avery, senior vice president of electric operations at SDG&E, characterized the power-plant speculation as nothing short of irresponsible.

"There are no facts to back that up. There is no reason to even consider that. It's not in our plan," Avery said, in an interview last week.

SDG&E powers 1.2 million homes and 100,000 businesses in San Diego County and southern Orange County. It is seeking the green light from the California Public Utilities Commission to string 500-kilovolt wires from 160-foot-tall metal structures that Jacob suggests look like giant "erector sets." The commission is expected to rule on the proposal sometime in 2007.

Unveiled March 20, the proposed 120-mile route for the transmission line would run northwest from El Centro across the Imperial County desert, west across Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and southwest through Ramona, Scripps Ranch and Rancho Penasquitos.

The utility says the line would deliver 1,000 megawatts, increasing the region's 4,000-megawatt supply by 25 percent. A megawatt is the standard measuring unit for electricity, and on most days it is enough to keep lights on in 750 to 1,000 homes.

SDG&E is billing the electricity superhighway as a vehicle for delivering geothermal and solar energy produced near the Salton Sea in Imperial County. Geothermal technology would tap steam from underground geysers along the Salton Sea.

The surge of interest in solar and geothermal power is being driven by a state law that requires California utilities to get at least 20 percent of their electricity from so-called renewable sources by 2010. But opponent Bill Powers, a mechanical engineer and activist who has spent years studying Sempra's and SDG&E's projects, maintains that the Imperial County solar plant SDG&E wants to tap into won't come on-line by 2010, and possibly not even by 2015.

Powers insists that the driving force behind Sunrise is the $350 million, 600-megawatt power plant that Sempra built three miles south of the border, near Mexicali. The power generated by the plant flows north for about 10 miles to the Imperial Valley Substation, the starting point for Sunrise. From there, the power flowing out of Mexico rides into San Diego County on an existing 500-kilovolt transmission system called Southwest Powerlink, which runs along Interstate 8.

If SDG&E were to build the Sunrise Powerlink farther to the north, it would not only provide another way for electricity to reach metropolitan San Diego, it would create a potential path for power to flow into Riverside County, Orange County and Los Angeles. The latter would require construction of a sort of second phase of Sunrise, which would likely begin at SDG&E's proposed new substation in the Warner Springs/Lake Henshaw area.

"Almost certainly, the day after they get authorization from the PUC to build Sunrise, if they do, they submit the next application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the link from Lake Henshaw up to Southern California Edison territory," Powers said.

SDG&E and Sempra officials suggest that notion is naive speculation.

Mike Niggli, president of Sempra Generation, the Sempra subsidiary that owns and operates the Mexicali plant, said all of the plant's electricity is being used today. In fact, the company is using existing lines to deliver it to Edison customers in the Los Angeles area, he said.

"The delivery of the output of this power plant is not dependent on Sunrise being there," Niggli said.

Powers, however, said the wires that carry the plant's electricity across the border into the United States have the ability to move twice as much as now. He suggests it is not only conceivable, but probable, that Sempra will expand its Mexicali generating complex to take advantage of that unused line capacity.

Not so, said Niggli. "The company is spending $10 billion, and none of it is going for power plants outside California," he said. "Not one dime."

Niggli also said Sunrise opponents are wrong to suggest the Mexicali plant is dirty because it has the same equipment as plants Sempra built in the United States ---- including the newly dedicated Palomar Energy Center in Escondido ---- and meets California air-quality standards.

Another consideration, said Powers, is that the proposed line would not make a beeline from San Diego to the south Salton Sea area that has been touted as a hot spot for future geothermal and solar projects. Rather, he said, the preferred route would tie directly into the substation that serves the Mexico plant ---- and veer well south and west of the huge lake.

"If you are going out to Imperial Valley to get solar, then why even tie into the Imperial Valley Substation which is 40 miles to the south?" Powers asked.

Avery said the answer is simple: The main reason for building Sunrise is to improve the reliability of San Diego County's power network, and that requires more than new electricity. It requires a connection to the desert substation, he said.

"Building a line from a generator to the city does nothing to improve reliability," he said. "You have to reinforce the grid." Without such a connection, Avery said, Sunrise would be tantamount to building a garage facing the backyard instead of the driveway.

"We could just as easily build it all the way to Arizona, but that would be far more expensive," he said.

As for the proposed Stirling Energy Systems solar plant SDG&E wants to plug into, Avery said there are three potential sites. All are on routes under study for Sunrise, he said, meaning the plant will tie directly into the transmission line.

That's not the case with geothermal sites along the Salton Sea. However, Avery said an existing line owned by the Imperial Irrigation District would move that electricity to the Imperial Valley Substation.

"When people talk about what our motives are, keep in mind that Imperial Irrigation District will own half of this line," Avery said, noting SDG&E struck a deal last month that calls for Imperial to own the section between El Centro and Anza-Borrego.

On SDG&E's half, a 500-kilovolt line would be changed out for a pair of 230-kilovolt lines at Warner Springs.

Opponents suggest the wires coming across the desert would have more capacity than ones heading west out of Warner Springs, making the mountain community a logical starting point for a second line going north.

But Avery said the utility would switch wires there to match the backbone of the urban electrical system.

"Our entire grid in San Diego is 230-kv," he said. "At some point along the line, we have to make the transition from 500kv to 230kv."

Avery said Sunrise will have the same capacity all the way from El Centro to San Diego: 1,000 megawatts. Not until Scripps Ranch will the load shrink. From that point, just one of the two 230-kilovolt wires will continue on over to Carmel Valley, Sunrise's termination point, he said.

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