Companies Agree To Explore Major New Electric Transmission Project

San Francisco - Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Sea Breeze Pacific West Coast Cable, LP, have agreed to study the possible development of an undersea electric transmission line that would enhance power supplies in northern California by connecting the region with sources of low-cost and renewable electricity in the Pacific Northwest.

Under the terms of a newly signed Memorandum of Understanding, the companies will work together to evaluate the possible development, design, construction, operation and ownership of the project, which would be the world's longest undersea high-voltage direct current cable. If built, the 1,600-megawatt cable would stretch 650 miles from a substation near Portland, Oregon, to the San Francisco Bay Area.

California requires the state's investor-owned utilities to acquire 20 percent of their purchased or generated energy from eligible renewable generation sources by 2010. The line would likely provide PG&E's California utility customers more direct access to existing hydroelectric power from the Pacific Northwest, as well as future access to the vast, but as yet largely undeveloped, renewable wind energy resources of the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.

"This project is an example of the innovative options PG&E is exploring today to serve customers better by strengthening infrastructure, creating savings through access to lower cost energy supplies, ensuring adequate power supplies, and minimizing environmental impacts," said Stewart Ramsay, PG&E's vice president of electric transmission.

"We are excited to be working with PG&E on creative infrastructure solutions utilizing state-of-the-art technology" said Brian Chernack, CEO of Sea Breeze Pacific.

"Creating a new, highly efficient transmission corridor along the West Coast will greatly facilitate rapid growth of clean energy generation in a region which has abundant renewable resources, but which are presently ‘stranded' for lack of transmission," noted John Tompkins, COO of Sea Breeze Pacific.