49,000 customers to benefit from proposed Liberty Utilities power line upgrade

The TRPA, U.S. Forest Service and the California Public Utilities Commission have released a final environmental impact report on the proposed electrical system upgrade in North Lake Tahoe by Liberty Utilities.

The proposed 625 and 650 Electrical Line Upgrade Project would consist primarily of an upgrade of Liberty Energy's existing 625 and 650 electrical power lines and associated substations from 60 kilovolt to 120 kV, to allow the entire North Lake Tahoe Transmission System to operate at 120 kV.

More than four years of federal, state and regional planning are reflected in the final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIP/EIS). It can be reviewed on the TRPA website as well at at the Tahoe City, Kings Beach and Truckee libraries; at the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and Tahoe National Forest offices.

The project would include six primary components: 1) removal of the existing 625 Line and construction of a new, rerouted 625 Line; 2) rebuild of the existing 650 Line with potential for realignments based on the action alternatives considered; 3) realignment of two short segments of the 650 Line and removal of the replaced segments; 4) rebuild of the Northstar Tap into a fold (a “fold” allows for service to be maintained at a substation in the event of an interruption in service on either side of the power line feeding it); 5) rebuild of a 1.6-mile long section of the existing 132 Line in the Town of Truckee; and 6) upgrade, modification, and/or decommissioning of six substations. These improvements would increase the ability to maintain the current maximum system loads during an outage on any one of the four sections of the system, and decrease reliance on the Kings Beach Diesel Generation Station. In addition, rebuilding and realigning the power lines would reduce the likelihood of outages associated with high winds, downed trees, snow loading, and forest fires, and would improve access to the lines for maintenance, emergency outage response, and repair activities. The planned conversion of the North Lake Tahoe Transmission System from its current 60 kV loop with 88 MVA of capacity to a 120 kV loop with 114 MVA of capacity (without use of the Kings Beach Diesel Generation Station) is needed to provide single-contingency reliability in accordance with federal and state requirements.

The project features and proposed activities are predominantly located on lands managed by the USFS; these lands are located in the LTBMU and Tahoe National Forest. Portions of the project are also located in the Town of Truckee and the unincorporated Placer County communities of Kings Beach and Tahoe City, on lands within the Martis Creek Lake Recreation Area and Burton Creek State Park, and on private lands.