The United States Bureau of Reclamation, in partnership with Duke‐American Transmission Company (DATC), is proposing to construct a new 230‐kV, 600 megawatt (MW) transmission line known as the San Luis Transmission Project which is approximately 85 miles in length.  The proposed 230-kV transmission line would run between Western Area Power Administration ‘s (WAPA) Tracy Substation and the San Luis and Dos Amigos substations.  The San Luis Transmission Project (SLTP) may also include approximately seven miles of 70‐kV transmission line between the San Luis and O’Neill substations.  The SLTP would provide an alternative source for delivery of electricity to the San Luis and Dos Amigos components of the State Water Project (SWP).

When completed, WAPA will operate, and maintain the SLTP with 400 MW of capacity north to south between the Tracy and San Luis substations reserved to serve Bureau of Reclamation and the San Luis and Delta‐Mendota Water Authority customers.  The remaining 200 MW of north to south capacity, as well as the full 600 MW of south to north capacity, has been identified as available for acquisition by the State Water Project and others.  The goal of this workshop was to review this opportunity and to evaluate the characteristics of the various other potential levels of participation by DWR. 

The Value Team evaluated the extent of participation being considered by DWR at the time of the workshop and developed alternative levels of participation to the acquisition of the generated capacity.  These various levels of participation were evaluated based on each approaches level of risk, cost impact, and list of weighted factors determined by the Value Team.  These weighted factors concerned the reliability of being able to access the generated capacity procured as needed, the transmission lines ability to meet their load requirements, transmission cost of the generated power, mitigating risk associated with each alternative level of participation, and implementability of alternative participation approaches.   Using these criteria, the Value Team developed a weighted matrix to identify a “preferred alternative”.  The results of this weighted evaluation were provided to the California Department of Water Resources to assist in their effort of making an informed decision.