Five contestants vie for California power line

OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2015. The California primary grid operator's plan to build a 500kV transmission line from southern Arizona into southern California has drawn bids from a wide variety of developers, power generation owners and utilities vying to win the \\$300mn project, with five proposals on the short list.

The California Independent System Operator initially selected six contestants for the Delaney-to-Colorado River project. But two of them, utility Southern California Edison and developer TransCanyon DCR, have decided to join forces and the grid operator will review a single proposal from them.

TransCanyon is a joint venture between Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary MidAmerican Transmission and Pinnacle West Capital subsidiary Bright Canyon Energy.

The four other contestants for building the transmission line are DCR Transmission, California Transmission Development, Duke-American Transmission and NextEra Energy Transmission West.

DCR Transmission is a joint venture between a subsidiary of Spanish firm Abengoa, which has invested in US renewable capacity, and investment firm Starwood Energy Group.

Duke-American Transmission is a joint venture between Duke Energy and American Transmission. The companies' bid for the California project is supported by the Western Area Power Administration's Desert Southwest Region and social fund Citizens Energy.

Private developer LS Power owns California Transmission Development. Utility holding company NextEra is the parent of NextEra Energy Transmission West.

The Delaney-to-Colorado River line will allow 200MW to 300MW of additional import capacity from Arizona and support the transfer of as much as 1,400MW of renewable power from the Imperial Irrigation District region into southern California.

The estimated \\$300mn cost of the project does not include upgrades at the Delaney substation, under construction by Arizona Public Service, and at the existing Colorado River substation owned by Southern California Edison.