Powerlink ruling sets SDG&E back by months

By: Dave Downey - Staff Writer
North County Times

A proposal to string a giant power line through the North County backcountry suffered a major setback Tuesday when a state commissioner applied the brakes to the project's approval process because of questions about the line's environmental impacts.

As a result, it is a near certainty that San Diego Gas & Electric Co. won't be able to complete its superhighway of electricity by 2010, as it had hoped, the commissioner stated. And observers suggested that the development spreads a cloud of uncertainty over whether the project even will be approved.

In a 17-page ruling, California Public Utilities Commissioner Dian M. Grueneich extended from Aug. 3 to Jan. 8 the deadline for completing an analysis of the project's environmental impacts and set a June 6, 2008, target for the final report.

As a result, a commission decision on whether to grant permission to build the $1.3 billion, 150-mile transmission line between El Centro and San Diego that was anticipated in January won't come until late next summer, at the earliest.

"I do this with great reluctance and regret," the commissioner wrote. "It is with reluctance because our staff has worked so hard to keep the schedule in this proceeding on track. It is with regret because SDG&E could have avoided this delay."

Caught off-guard, utility officials maintained that they have been cooperative and forthcoming at every stage of the project review process that has gone on for a year.

"We are disappointed and we disagree with the commissioner's decision to delay the project," said Stephanie Donovan, a spokeswoman for San Diego Gas & Electric. "We are a little surprised at the way that this has been characterized."

In her ruling, the commissioner stated that more time is needed to evaluate new information that surfaced in San Diego hearings this month. Grueneich placed the blame for the delay squarely on the shoulders of San Diego Gas & Electric officials, saying they had waited until the hearings to reveal information that should have been made available months ago.

The ruling came less than a week after the utility disclosed it had made mistakes in calculating the financial benefits that the power line would deliver to its 1.3 million residential and business customers in San Diego County and southern Orange County, and to other ratepayers around the state. On Friday, after accounting for the mistakes that stemmed from faulty assumptions about power plants and math errors, San Diego Gas & Electric downgraded its estimate of the annual economic benefits that Sunrise would deliver, from $204 million to $129 million.

The latest figure is little more than one-fourth of the utility's original estimate of the line's economic benefits, which were first pegged at $447 million a year.

Grueneich said the utility also has been slow to provide information about imperiled flora and fauna in the project's path.

"SDG&E could not have been prepared for the second bomb dropped today by the CPUC," said Michael Shames, executive director for the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a San Diego consumer advocacy group that opposes the power line, in an e-mail note.

Another opponent, David Hogan of the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, suggested in a telephone interview that the one-two punch could have serious implications for the project's fate.

"The bottom line is that the entire decision has been delayed until next summer," Hogan said. "This is a major blow to San Diego Gas and Electric."

Ramona activist Diane Conklin, who also opposes the project, welcomed the ruling.

"We still may not know how bad this project is. We haven't plumbed its absolute depths," Conklin said. "Just this last week, its economic savings to the consumer fell apart. What's going to happen next? This is a sad soap opera. Stay tuned."

The change in the economic estimate led the state commission to cancel the San Diego hearings. The hearings are tentatively scheduled to resume Monday in San Francisco, but Grueneich on Tuesday hinted that they may not start up until later. Grueneich termed the economic errors "potentially serious."

In delaying the ultimate commission decision, Grueneich said she is not worried that the lights won't stay on if the project isn't up and running by 2010.

The utility stands by its claim that the region could face a shortage if the power line is not ready by then.

"If we don't have the Sunrise Powerlink, that means we're going to have to look at other alternatives, such as building additional peaking units," Donovan said. "That means it is going to be more difficult, if not impossible, to meet our renewable goals."

The utility faces a 2010 state mandate to boost the share of its total supply from solar, wind and other renewable, nonfossil-fuel sources of power to 20 percent.

As for the new information that surfaced, Grueneich said that included a desire to design Sunrise Powerlink so that it could be expanded. Grueneich said the revelation changes things because the environmental study must take into account the impacts of potential expansions.

Opponents, who have long contended the utility's long-range goal is to build a bridge to the giant service area of Southern California Edison to the north, suggested Tuesday that the expansion desire is evidence of that goal.

Disagreeing, utility spokesman Scott Crider said the company just wants to leave its options open. He said a future expansion could entail a connection to Edison, but it could also mean building a second line into San Diego.