PORT ANGELES — A planned high-voltage power line under the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria won’t be operational until the end of 2008, a year later than projected, the project’s manager told the Planning Commission at its Wednesday night meeting.
The Planning Commission recommended state Department of Ecology approval of the project’s shoreline substantial development conditional use permit.
The 550-megawatt transmission line — one megawatt is enough to power about 625 homes — would extend from View Royal on the Portage Inlet near Victoria to the Bonneville Power Administration’s substation at Park Avenue and Porter Streets in Port Angeles, just west of the Peninsula College campus.
The cable would use “high voltage direct current light,” a variation of “high voltage direct current” that is being used in cables already in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
A converter station would be built just south of Lauridsen Boulevard, north of the Bonneville Power Administration substation.
The cable would be about eight inches thick on land and 10 inches under water.
Mike Wise, project manager for Sea Breeze Victoria Converter Corp., said the plan was expected to be operational at the end of 2007 but now the target date has been pushed to the end of 2008.
