PORT ANGELES — An underwater transmission line between Port Angeles and Victoria would provide the North Olympic Peninsula with reliable electricity from renewable sources year-round, a Canadian developer told Clallam County Public Utility District officials Monday.
Paul Manson, president and chief executive officer of Vancouver, B.C.-based Sea Breeze Power Corp., said the Juan de Fuca cable project would result in more energy capacity for the Peninsula and the entire Northwest.
“The Juan de Fuca cable offers the opportunity for this region to have much greater reliability of being able to receive electricity from two directions instead of just one,” Manson said.
The proposed 550-megawatt enclosed cable buried under the bottom of the Strait of Juan de Fuca would link the U.S. power grid with energy generated on Vancouver Island by renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
Clallam County, which gets most of its electricity from the Bonneville Power Administration, would have “much greater energy security” with the cable, Manson told Commissioners Hugh Haffner and Ted Simpson.
Commissioner Will Purser was absent.
Clallam County PUD and other medium-sized Washington utilities are required to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The cable would enable the PUD to use wind and solar power when it needs it and store it when it doesn’t.
“There is demand in both directions for a cable like this,” Manson said.
“Renewables produce at different times. The more the transmission system can become like a web, the greater ability you have to shift power from where it’s being produced to where it’s needed at any given time.
“British Columbia is really unique in the West in the size of the storage reservoirs that it has.”
The Juan de Fuca cable is a joint venture between Sea Breeze Power and New England-based Boundless Energy. The concept was conceived about eight years ago, Manson said.
Sea Breeze Power is interested in working with the PUD to build a converter station at the Port Angeles substation near Peninsula College. The federal government requires such a station to convert alternating current into direct current and back.
“The technology that we would be employing with this high-voltage direct current allows an extremely fast bi-directional change of the flow,” Manson said.
The project has received a U.S. presidential permit, a final environmental impact statement and other major permits from the aU.S. and Canada.
In addition to the cable under the Strait, the project would upgrade transmission lines from Port Angeles to Shelton and from Victoria to south-central Vancouver Island.
Although the entire project would cost an estimated $650 million to complete, Manson said the cable was projected in a study to carry $134 billion in savings.
Manson said the partnership is looking for large utilities like BPA to participate.
“We are proposing a revenue-sharing concept that would require payment for value of certain benefits that the cable delivers that they would otherwise be paying money for,” he said.
BPA and BC Hydro have shown an interest, but nothing has been finalized.
“We regret the amount of time that it has taken to move this forward, but it’s the nature of the beast,” Manson said.
“I’m very optimistic that over the next several months, we’ll have some more tangible news.”
A second 550-megawatt cable across the state is in the planning stages, Manson added.
Manson said the cable would increase the capacity of the cross-border transmission line on the Interstate 5 corridor by about 25 percent.
PUD General Manager Doug Nass said he supports the concept of the project.
“From our standpoint, I think the Olympic Peninsula having a little more reliable electricity is a positive point,” he said.
The PUD commission previously approved a letter of support for the project. No action was taken by the board Monday.
After the meeting, Manson said the project would benefit PUD customers with no direct costs to them.
“Ratepayers here would do nothing but benefit from this line,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
