Path 15
Path 15 is an 84-mile (135 km) portion[1] of the north–south power transmission corridor in California, U.S. It forms a part of the Pacific AC Intertie and the California-Oregon Transmission Project. Path 15 is part of The Western Electricity Coordinating Council's links of electrical intertie paths in the western United States.
Path 15, along with the
Path 15 consists of three lines at 500 kV and four lines at 230 kV. The 500 kV lines connect Los Banos to Gates and Los Banos to Midway. All four 230 kV lines have Gates at one end with the other ends at Panoche, Gregg, and McCall.[2]
There are only two connecting PG&E lines north of Tracy
The route
The route is generally 3 to 7 miles (4.8 to 11.3 km) west of Interstate 5 from the Los Banos substation, west of Los Banos, to the Midway substation, near Buttonwillow.[5][6]
Connecting lines to Path 15 – Round Mountain to Los Banos substation
The two connecting PG&E
and PG&E lines north of Round Mountain are considered to be Path 66, not Path 15. These connecting lines to Path 15 will consist of two 500 kV lines until south of Tracy. Heading south, the lines run through the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada mountains towards the Table Mountain Substation (39°33′26.57″N 121°38′40.23″W / 39.5573806°N 121.6445083°W) northwest of Oroville. The lines head southeast from Table Mountain Substation; near the Sutter Buttes the two lines separate. One line heads almost due south, passing to the west of Sacramento and east of Davis. The other line continues southwest for some distance and then turns south and enters the Vaca-Dixon Substation along Interstate 505. The Vaca-Dixon substation (38°24′8.33″N 121°55′14.75″W / 38.4023139°N 121.9207639°W) was the world's largest substation at the time of its inauguration in 1922.[7] Just north of the Sacramento River and the city of Antioch the two lines rejoin and head in a south-southeasterly direction. The two PG&E lines span across both the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers on massive pylons along with the lone 500 kV Western Area Power Administration Path 66 line. Western's Path 66 line then turns east and runs parallel to the two PG&E lines to the west as all three lines head southeast. Both PG&E lines run to the west of the Clifton Court Forebay and cross Interstate 580 before entering the Tesla substation west of Tracy.[3][4]Leaving the Tesla Substation (37°42′33.52″N 121°33′48″W / 37.7093111°N 121.56333°W) one PG&E line heads southwest and two parallel PG&E lines continue in a south-southeasterly direction along the eastern foothills of the Diablo Range and the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley. Only one of the two parallel lines heading southeast connects with Path 15, since one line serves as a connector to WAPA's Tracy Substation. This connector line abruptly turns north when a rare, tall dual-circuit WAPA line meets the two PG&E lines. The same dual-circuit line carries the third 500 kV line that joins the lone southeastward PG&E line. South of this point is where the 500 kV transmission system consists of three lines, not two. Despite being located in the eastern foothills of the Diablo Range, the two eastern lines cross a body of water - the O'Neill Forebay of the massive San Luis Reservoir (just to the east of the San Luis Dam) on several artificial islands.[3][4]
The lone southwestward 500 kV PG&E line crosses the Diablo Ridge, rising to 808 m (2,650 feet) near
Path 15–Los Banos to Midway substation
South of the Los Banos substation (37°3′7.69″N 121°1′10.37″W / 37.0521361°N 121.0195472°W) the three 500kV lines (two PG&E and one WAPA) continue to head southeast, with the lone WAPA line running to the west of the two parallel PG&E lines. The lines regroup as they enter the Gates Substation near
Exiting the Gates substation (36°8′28″N 120°7′37″W / 36.14111°N 120.12694°W), two parallel PG&E lines continue heading southeastward and one line heads southwest with a 230 kV line. This 500 kV line once again crosses the Diablo Range as it heads towards the Pacific Ocean. The line crosses Highway 101 in Atascadero and Highway 1 near Morro Bay. After crossing some rugged coastal hills, the line enters the Diablo Canyon Power Plant substation. Due to the massive amount of power generated by the plant, a second 500 kV line was built alongside the first, as the parallel lines head east to form another 500 kV loop. These parallel lines cross Highway 101 north of Pismo Beach and traverse over some southern coastal mountains. After reaching a height of over 1,200 m or 3,937 feet,[8] the two parallel lines head down the arid foothills of the southern San Joaquin Valley and split up. The two lines rejoin just before entering the Midway Substation (35°24′23.68″N 119°27′7.99″W / 35.4065778°N 119.4522194°W) near Buttonwillow. The other two eastern lines also head into the same substation from the north. Southern California Edison's (SCE) two Path 26 lines connect to PG&E's grid at the Midway Substation. A PG&E line heading southeast from Midway substation is the third line of Path 26, not Path 15. Eventually, this line is replaced with SCE towers.[3][4]
Substations
From north to south:
Connecting power lines
- Round Mountain
- Table Mountain
- Vaca-Dixon
- Tesla
- Metcalf
- Moss Landing
- Diablo Canyon
Path 15
- Los Banos, the substation is approximately 9 miles (14 km) west of Los Banos
- Gates, located about 13 miles (21 km) east of Coalinga
- Midway, one mile (1.6 km) east of Buttonwillow
Western Area Power Administration's third line north of Tracy
WAPA's 500 kV line starts at the Captain Jack substation (42°4′38.06″N 121°23′25.47″W / 42.0772389°N 121.3904083°W) well to the northeast of Round Mountain. This is the
Issues
- Other power lines that follow Path 15
From Tesla substation to Midway substation, a set of 230 kV lines follows the main 500 kV lines. The dual-circuit 230 kV power lines run to the east of the 500 kV lines. Most of these lines were built by PG&E.[3][9]
- Power transmission capacity
Path 15 can transmit 2,000-3,265 MW of electrical power from north to south. The capacity for south to north power transmission is 4,800-5,400 MW.[9]
- Parallelism of Interstate 5 (south of Tesla substation)
In the section south of Tracy, the eastern two lines form an infrastructure corridor along with an
- Environmental impacts
The northern part of this electrical transmission corridor (including Path 66) is visible from space and
Differences in tower design
Like Western Area Power Administration's 500 kV line, the tower design for the entire transmission system is not the same, although the difference is not as dramatic as on the WAPA line. For the PG&E line, the differences are subtle and from a casual, far away view, it looks like the towers are all the same for the entire power line. It seems to be south of the Table Mountain substation, the tower legs spread apart from the tower bridge (upper section of tower) down to the tower base and there are four
- Visual reference
History
This entire project was built in the 1970s and 1980s in order to provide California and the
References
- ^ "Path 15". Western Area Power Administration. Archived from the original on March 24, 2013. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ a b c "Path 15 Upgrade Project Fact Sheet" (PDF). Western Area Power Administration. June 1, 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 24, 2013. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Route descriptions and tower designs are based on Google Earth images.
- ^ a b c d e f "California Transmission Lines". Retrieved 2013-06-24.
- ^ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dept. of the Interior (June 13, 2003). "Formal Section 7 Consultation on the Proposed Path 15 Transmission Line Project, Merced and Fresno Counties, California" (PDF). p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 15, 2013. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ Allen, Polly; Cross, Michelle (October 1, 2014). "From Midway Steam Plant to Midway Substation" (PDF). Retrieved January 5, 2020. Presentation that includes historical photographs and documents of the Midway Station site.
- ^ Bowen, Jerry (December 1999). "Time Line A Century and a Half of Solano County Life". The Solano Historian Sesquicentennial Issue. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
- ^ a b Google Earth elevation for GNIS coordinates.
- ^ a b c d "Paths 11-20". Western Electricity Coordinating Council. 2006.
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(help) - ^ "Paths 61-70". Western Electricity Coordinating Council. 2006.
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(help) - ^ "Trees and Power Lines". Western Area Power Administration. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
- ^ "Pacific Intertie:The California Connection on the Electron Superhighway" (PDF). Northwest Power Planning Council. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
- ^ a b "Administrator joins Gov. Schwarzenegger to commission Path 15". Western Area Power Administration. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
External links
- Interstate 5 Pictures of Path 15
- More pictures of Path 15 from West Coast Roads here, here, and here.