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SDG&E POWER LINK IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY.
The SDG&E Sunrise Power Link only
motive is to open the backcountry of San Diego County to new residential
developments
and subdivisions.
Recon photographs on Flickr of the
Southwest Power Link (SWPL) from the Miguel Substation in Bonita, along Route 94
by
Tecate and Potrero, and ending in Campo where the Southwest Power Link (SWPL)
parallel the United States Mexican Border
and the existing Border Fence - April
13, 2008.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laplayaheritage/sets/72157604520538632/
The existing Southwest Powerlink (SWPL) in
Yellow is south of and does not cross the Anza-Borrego Desert Park or the
Cleveland National Forest.
The existing SWPL is close to the Mexican
Border and Highway 94.
The proposed Southern Route Alternative
follows the existing Southwest Powerlink (SWPL) in Imperial County, then heads
north into and around the
Cleveland National Forest before ending up
in Santee.
The following is a webpage for the existing SDG&E - 500 kilovolt Southwest Power
Link (SWPL) off Route 94 and the
International Border with Mexico.
The superior route would be to
use the existing 500 kilovolt transmission line of the Southwest Power Link (SWPL)
and add an
additional 500 kilovolt line parallel to the existing line,
or replace
the existing line with a 1,000 kilovolt transmission line using Ultra High
Voltage (UHV) transmission.
Most information on the
Southwest Power Link (SWPL) says the existing route of the 500 kilovolt
transmission line and towers
follows Interstate 8 into Imperial Valley. This is
false information and is constantly being repeated.
The Southwest Power Link runs on
mostly South of Highway 94 near the International Border with Mexico. SDG&E already has
off-road dirt
service roads to each transmission tower on the border. Near the Campo area the
existing towers are located on
mountain tops. The Border Patrol uses these name SDG&E service roads to guard the border.
Most of the land under the
Southwest Power Link (SWPL) and near the International Border with Mexico in San
Diego County is
owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and
Indian Tribes.
The existing high-rise towers currently provide visual pollution. Adding an
additional parallel 500 kilovolt line or
replacing the existing line with a
1,000 kilovolt line would not provided much additional visual pollution or
environmental damage.
Campo is a backcountry community
in east San Diego County near the border with Mexico. From Highway 94 when
someone
asks how far is the Mexican border? The answer is that the Mexican
border 500 feet past those power lines on the mountain top.
After following the International
Border, the Southwest Power Link (SWPL) attaches to the Miguel 500 kilovolt
substation in Bonita located South of Sweetwater Reservoir and North of Telegraph Canyon
Road.
The preferred alternative is
tapping into renewable resources at the expense of protected lands does not
equal green energy.
Currently, the existing Southwest
Power Link is capable of
providing up to 1,750 megawatts of electricity, or more
than half of
expected demand in the San Diego region and half of the SDG&E power
demand of its 1.4 million customers. The
existing Southwest Power Link imports
electricity from electric generating plants in Mexico and Arizona.
SDG&E's proposed Sunrise Power Link
project includes new 500-kilovolt and 230-kilovolt wires would be strung from
metal
towers as tall as 160 feet. The utility's preferred route would
wind
through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Ranchita, Santa Ysabel, Ramona and
Rancho Penasquitos. SDG&E says the
proposed lines would boost the region's
electricity supply by
20 percent. The Sunrise Powerlink, which would have 91
miles of 500-kilovolt wires and 59 miles of 230-kilovolt wires.
UCAN has conducted a
comprehensive analysis of the proposal and fashioned at least
two alternative proposals that provide
comparable reliability
and ability to import renewable power
from the Imperial Valley.
The first, a combination of wire upgrades and use of existing
resources, comes at a capital cost for
SDG&E of a little over
$100 million, and saves the state's
ratepayers $3.5 billion over
its 40-year life (annual savings of $92 million per year)
compared to SDG&E's proposal. The second
proposal is a southern
route paralleling the Southwest Powerlink. It provides the same
transmission benefits as STP without
requiring 23 miles of new
power lines to be constructed inside California's largest state
park. SDG&E assumed
existing congestion at Miguel would never be
addressed, despite acknowledging an all-but-free way to greatly
reduce it (the ISO
didn't). SDG&E rejected the option of a line
parallel to
SWPL past Anza-Borrego - only to discover in May
2007 that its own numbers showed such an option to be
cost-effective, and in
July 2007 that such an option would be
even more cost-effective than estimated in May. (The ISO
confirmed this alternative
would meet reliability needs, but did
not analyze its cost).
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212
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New 500 kV Line ll to SWPL Trans Alt
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786 |
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279 |
100 |
1165 |
The Southwest Power Link is in Purple and goes from the Miguel substation to
Imperial Valley along the International Border with Mexico.
The SWPL does not
follow Interstate 8 East.
Within San Diego County the Miguel-Imperial Valley portion of the Southwest
Power Link is wholly owned and operated by
SDG&E.
The Independent System Operators (ISO) has 100 percent
scheduling rights, 970 MW.
The distance between Miguel and Imperial Valley
is 83 miles, most on the border.
The above-figure does not show the actual Southwest Power Link alignment and
is not to scale.
The west terminus of the Southwest Power Link is located at the Miguel
Station.
Miguel Station is located in the
community of Bonita, southeast of Sweetwater Reservoir on San Miguel
Road, and northwest of Otay Lakes.
To get to the International Border off
94 in Campo take Forest Gate Road.
Bill Powers - Powers Engineering -
Smart Energy 20/20 the 20th Century Alternative. Sonar and photovoltaic cells.
In 2005 and 2006 when the Airport
Authority was thinking about the Mag-Lev high speed train to Imperial Valley, we
asked the Airport Authority to analyze the joint use the existing 500 kilovolt
Southwest Power Link (SWPL) corridor owned by SDG&E located on the International
Border with Mexico.
http://www.laplayaheritage.com/SDG&E.htm
Our plans for everyone to save money and protect the desert included building
three construction projects at the same time:
1. Add an additional parallel 500 kilovolt line or replace the existing
transmission line with a 1,000 kilovolt Ultra High Voltage (UHV) lines like they
use in China;
2. Build the border fence using the existing SDG&E maintenance roads along the
border;
3. Build the Mag-Lev train to Imperial Valley in the same Utility Easement.
The Southwest Power Link (SWPL) alternative was excluded by SDG&E early on in
the process without explanation or written analysis.
The SWPL already gets power
from Imperial Valley, Arizona, and Mexico.
All documents say the SWPL route is follows Interstate 8 to Imperial Valley.
This is false information
http://www.cigre.org/
International Council on Large Electric
Systems.
http://www.e-cigre.org/
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China starts experimental
Ultra High Voltage (UHV) grids |
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CHINA broke ground
Saturday for experimental Ultra High Voltage (UHV) grids in Changzhi
City in North China’s Shanxi Province. This marks the world’s first
experiment to transmit UHV power long distance through 1,000-kilovolt
alternating grids.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Liu Zhenya, general manager of
the State Grid Corporation, operator of the project, said that
developing UHV grids will distribute China’s natural resources more
efficiently.
The grid, extending 653.8 kilometers and crossing the Yellow
River and the Hanjiang River, will transmit power produced in Shanxi
Province, China’s largest coal base, to Nanyang City in Central China’s
Henan Province and then to Jingmen City in Central China’s Hubei
Province.
Japan and Russia have both built 1,000-kilovolt alternating
power grids, but only for short-distance transmission. There have been
intense debates worldwide on whether to develop long-distance UHV grids.
The Chinese Government is the first to approve an experimental
project. It will feed the demand of energy-thirsty East and Central
China by transmitting power from energy-rich West and North China.
With a planned investment of 5.7 billion yuan (US$713 million),
the grid is designed to have a rated voltage of 1,000 kilovolts, a
maximum operational voltage of 1,100 kilovolts, and transmission power
of 5 million kilowatts.
More than two-thirds of China’s water resources originate in
West China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and the Tibet Autonomous
Region, and more than two-thirds of the coal resources are found in
North China’s Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and the Inner Mongolian
Autonomous Region.
East and South China have the lowest reserves of energy and
other natural resources but the highest energy demand.
Carrying alternating current at 1,000 kilovolts or direct
current at 800 kilovolts, the UHV grids make possible the long-distance
transmission of power.
Liu Zhaoshao, chief economist of the State Grid Corporation,
previouly told reporters that if successful, the State Grid Corporation
plans to build more UHV grids transmitting power from big coal-fired
power or hydropower generators to electricity-thirsty regions from 2006
to 2010. They aim to construct a power grid which covers North and East
China by the year 2020.
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Source:Shenzhen Daily |
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2006-08-22 |
http://www.iec.ch/online_news/etech/arch_2007/etech_0307/focus.htm
Energy efficient Ultra
High Voltage: the future of electricity transmission
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Supplying large
amounts of electrical energy
efficiently and with minimal impact
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One of
the dilemmas facing governments and utilities today is how to
supply large amounts of electrical energy for growing
populations in a way that is both efficient and has a minimal
impact on the environment. In those countries, such as Brazil,
China and India, the challenge lies in getting the electricity
from the power generating stations thousands of kilometers away
to the urban populations. “Ultra high voltage” offers the
promise to meet this challenge.
The
world’s experts on Ultra High Voltage are convening in
Beijing, China from 18-21 July under the auspices of the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and
CIGRE, the
International Council on Large Electric Systems, to map out the
way forward for this new technology and its potential
applications. This
symposium is a further example of how the IEC and CIGRE are
committed to the goal of increasing the efficiency of energy
production, its transmission, distribution and use.
More power, fewer lines
Ultra High Voltage – or UHV – is defined as voltages of 1 000 kV
alternating current, or higher, and 800kV direct current, or
higher, and it is needed for two main reasons. The first is to
deliver large quantities of power over very long distances with
very little loss of power (higher voltage means lower current on
the transmission line and therefore lower loss). The second is
to deliver large quantities of power to cities without having a
proliferation of transmission lines. If you can deliver lots
more power with just one line, you don’t have to build more
lines and the resulting overall impact is reduced. In places
where demand is growing but room for transmission lines is
limited, such as Tokyo in Japan, this is critical because it
means only one power line corridor is needed, not several.
Since
studies in the US indicate that the world’s electrical
consumption is set to rise to 30 000 billion kWh by 2030 from
the 15 400 billion kWh in 2006, any potential savings in
electrical energy, and in the number of lines installed, are
welcome.
Standards for UHV do
not exist yet, so they need to be developed to ensure the safe
and efficient use of this technology. It is a technical
challenge for manufacturers, utilities and, ultimately, a
regulatory issue for governments. IEC and CIGRE are the bodies
responsible for technical specifications for this technology.
The challenges
The first issue is to develop reliable equipment and systems
that deliver electricity safely. At present, the highest
voltages used for long-distance transmission are about 765 kV
A.C. It would be easy if we could simply increase the voltage of
the power lines, but technically this is impossible because
today’s equipment will not withstand these higher voltages.
The challenge then is
to develop new transformers, breakers and associated equipment,
new transmission lines and insulating equipment designed for UHV.
Experts admit that this will be expensive, but the alternative
is having lots more transmission lines.
With much more power
transmitted over on a line, the impact resulting from losing a
line is much higher. System planners and operators need to be
sure that the system will continue to function even when a line
fails so keeping the system stable is the second challenge.
The IEC/CIGRE symposium
is for utilities, transmission system planners and operators,
contractors, equipment manufacturers, transmission design
engineers, research and test laboratories, government regulators
and universities. It is a further example of how the IEC and
CIGRE are committed to saving energy with the common goal of
increasing the efficiency of the energy use.
(March 2007) |
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http://www.iec.ch/online_news/etech/arch_2007/etech_0107/news_2.htm
IEC-CIGRE Symposium on Ultra
High Voltage
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High
voltage power lines |
Development of new transmission
infrastructures at voltages of 1000 kV AC or higher, and 800kV DC (UHV),
is under consideration in a few countries to respond to specific needs.
The increase of population and electrical consumption world-wide calls
for an expansion of this type of equipment, and the corresponding
standardization work therefore appears to be useful and necessary.
At the invitation of the
Chinese National Committee, IEC and
CIGRE are organizing
a joint Symposium
on UHV to assess the state of the art for these voltages and identify
the research work to be carried out in the future.
This Symposium will be held
over three days in Beijing from 18-21 July 2007 and will address the
following:
- What are the projects under
consideration?
- What are the technical challenges for AC?
- What are the technical challenges for DC?
Results of the symposium will
help to determine an action plan and define priorities for both CIGRE
and IEC in the UHV field.
The various topics will be
presented by invited experts from China and other countries involved,
and there will be open discussions involving delegates.
The symposium will be of great
interest for utilities, transmission system operators, equipment
manufacturers, transmission design engineers, research and test
laboratories, universities, and contractors.
(January 2007)
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CHINESE NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE IEC
Standardization Administration of China (SAC) No.9 Madian East Road, Haidian
District BEIJING 100088 China
Tel: +86 10 8226 2628 Fax: +86 10 8226 0673 Email:
CHINESE NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE IEC (click on committee name to start an
email)
WWW: http://www.sac.gov.cn
or or
http://www.cnca.gov.cn
Membership on technical committees
PRESIDENT Mrs. Fengqing WANG
SECRETARY Mr. Chenguang GUO
Standardization Administration of China (SAC)
No. 9 Madian East Road, Haidian District BEIJING 100088 China
Tel: +86 10 8226 2628 Fax: +86 10 8226 0673 Email:
Mr. Chenguang GUO (click on name to start an
email)
Miguel 500 kilovolt and 230 kilovolt substation in Bonita near
the new Toll Road.
Miguel 500 kilovolt and 230 kilovolt substation in Bonita near
the new Toll Road.
Southwest Power Link Off Highway 94.
Southwest Power Link in Campo Off
Forest Grade Road @ 500 feet north of the United States - Mexico Border Fence.
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