SDG&E Proposes New Transmission Line

SAN DIEGO -- SDG&E executives got an earfull Monday on the company's proposal to build a major transmission line, 10News reported.

SDG&E makes no qualms about it. To meet San Diego's continued growth, the utility says it needs a new transmission line.

"We have to supply power somehow, but can it be done in a way that fits in with the communities?" Louise Arnold, with the League of Women Voters, said.

And that in a nutshell is the basis for a series of community forums like the one in Rancho Penasquitos.

The line would be a 120-mile link from Imperial Valley to San Diego.

Why Imperial Valley? That's where a massive new solar generating station will be built. And along the way, SDG&E also wants to tap into a new farm of wind-driven turbines. Both are ways SDG&E can meet its 20 percent mandate for renewable energy, 10News reported.

"Without this line, we're not going to be able to bring in as much renewable energy as we'd like or create the backbone to sustain San Diego's growth," SDG&E spokesman Ed Van Herik said.

The big question, however, is where would the line and the poles that support it be placed?

One scenario runs it through the Anza Borrego State Park.

Park officials say they already feel slighted from the last time this happened.

"We're very unhappy with the poles that were put there in 1924, so any kind of upgrade we want to correct the wrong we felt was made back then," park superintendent Mark Jorgensen said.

The community forum allows those attending to come up with compromises or at least incorporate the concerns before plans are finalized.

SDG&E hopes to have a decison by 2007 with constuction completed by 2010.

Another community forum will be held Tuesday night at Ramona Elementary School.