The TransWest Express transmission project, designed to carry 3,000 MW of Wyoming wind power to the Southwest and California, broke ground Tuesday on a typically windy day in Carbon County, Wyo.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon participated in the ceremonial groundbreaking at a cattle ranch where the line’s northern HVDC terminal will be built.
The Biden administration said the groundbreaking represented a milestone in its push for faster transmission buildout.
“The TransWest Express project will accelerate our nation’s transition to a clean energy economy by unlocking renewable resources, creating jobs, lowering costs and boosting local economies,” Haaland said in a statement.
TransWest got the go-ahead to build in April, when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a notice to proceed. It was the final step in an approval process that began 15 years ago. (See TransWest Express to Break Ground After BLM Approval.)
The 732-mile high-voltage line will be capable of transmitting 3,000 MW of energy from wind farms near Rawlins, Wyo., to consumers in California, where it is regarded as an important component of the state’s push to achieve 100% clean energy by 2045.
To meet the goal, the state will need to import as much as 10 GW of out-of-state wind by 2040, at least half of it from Wyoming, according to projections by the California Public Utilities Commission and California Energy Commission.
CAISO’s inaugural 20-year transmission outlook estimated that carrying wind from the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states to California to achieve 100% clean energy would cost $12 billion.
Last summer, TransWest’s developers asked to join CAISO as a participating transmission owner under a new subscriber model, in which a line’s subscribing customers pay its costs. The ISO’s Board of Governors approved the request in December, and FERC approved the agreement between CAISO and TransWest in March as a step toward PTO status. (See FERC OKs CAISO-TransWest Move Toward PTO Status.)
If the arrangement wins final FERC approval, CAISO will operate the line, and its entire capacity will be allocated to the Power Company of Wyoming (PCW), owner of the 3,000-MW Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project being constructed in the south-central part of the state. FERC approved the arrangement in February 2022.
Both TransWest and PCW are wholly owned affiliates of The Anschutz Corp., a privately held company controlled by billionaire Phillip Anschutz.
Once built, TransWest will consist of 732 miles of transmission lines in three linked segments: a 405-mile, 3,000-MW HVDC system between Wyoming and Utah; a 278-mile, 1,500-MW HVAC line between Utah and Nevada; and a 49-mile, 1,500-MW HVAC transmission line in Nevada.
It will connect in Utah to lines serving the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and in Nevada to CAISO’s balancing authority area.
Construction is expected to begin by the end of this year, with energization scheduled for 2027, TransWest has said. The line is expected to create about 1,000 jobs during its construction phase.
Other major Western lines being developed to transmit wind energy from the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains include PacifiCorp’s Gateway South transmission line across Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. PacifiCorp, owned by billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, plans to add more than 3.7 GW of new wind power by 2040 in Wyoming and five other Western states.
Pattern Energy’s SunZia transmission project, a 550-mile line from New Mexico to Arizona, received route approval from BLM in May, with construction expected to start this summer. The line will carry energy from Pattern’s 3,500-MW SunZia Wind project in central New Mexico to markets in Arizona and California.