UCAN questions need for Sunrise power line

By Keith Darce
San Diego Union-Tribune May 31, 2007

SAN DIEGO - A San Diego-based consumers' group will ask state utility regulators Friday to reject San Diego Gas & Electric's request to build a 150-mile electricity transmission line across Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The Sunrise Powerlink isn't needed and will be more costly to ratepayers than the utility has estimated, according to a draft of written testimony by the Utility Consumers' Action Network.

"The utility has misled regulators and the public about costs, overstated the need for the project and has ignored smarter, more economical alternatives," said UCAN, the region's largest rate advocacy group.

UCAN provided a copy of its draft testimony to the Union-Tribune on Thursday. A final version of the document is expected to be filed Friday with the California Public Utilities Commission.

"It's no surprise that UCAN is opposing the project," SDG&E spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan said Thursday after learning of the draft. "We have seen no data to support the conclusions."

She said no one at the utility had seen the UCAN document.

The high-voltage Sunrise Powerlink, which initially would cost $1.3 billion to build, would carry power from Imperial County across San Diego County's back country to fast-growing communities in North County and the coastal region.

UCAN's testimony will estimate that SDG&E customers would end up paying $760 million more for Sunrise than the $6.24 billion in long-term costs projected by the utility. The SDG&E estimate includes the $1.3 billion construction cost.

UCAN's extra costs were based on items such as maintenance expenses that were left out of SDG&E's calculation, said UCAN executive director Michael Shames.

SDG&E and other supporters of the project, which include numerous business groups, say Sunrise is needed to carry power from planned renewable energy generators in Imperial County and to ensure that San Diego County will have enough electricity to meet demands beyond 2010.

The PUC has said it will decide by early 2008 whether to permit construction of the line.

UCAN also questioned SDG&E's claim that Sunrise is necessary for the utility to achieve a state-required goal of producing 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010. UCAN cited a December 2005 document produced by SDG&E that indicated the utility could import enough "green" power along an existing transmission line in southern San Diego County to meet the state goal.

UCAN said the utility overlooked numerous alternatives to Sunrise, such as the upgrade of existing transmission lines and construction of new natural gas power plants here, to meet the county's electricity needs until 2018.

"SDG&E tried to solve all of their problems with one big project," Shames said. "They didn't look at how a set of smaller projects could achieve the same results for far less money."

SDG&E's Donovan said Sunrise is part of a multifaceted approach by the utility - which includes several new power plants - to solve power supply strains expected by 2010.

"We can't gamble with our customers' energy supply with just-in-time projects, waiting until just when a (power) project is needed," Donovan said.

"The Sunrise Powerlink is designed to be a long-term piece of infrastructure that will support the growing needs of electricity generation in this region for decades to come," she said.

The Sunrise route proposed by SDG&E would start in the Imperial Valley and take it west across Anza-Borrego, past San Ysabel, Ramona and Scripps Ranch, and end in Carmel Valley. The path through Anza-Borrego has angered preservationists who say the lines would disturb the park's natural habitat and ruin pristine vistas.

Meanwhile, federal officials are preparing to declare that southern California and parts of two neighboring states compose a key power transmission corridor, a designation that would let federal regulators approve new transmission lines such as Sunrise even if they are rejected by state officials.