CASPER – The first of nine scoping meetings was held yesterday by the Bureau of Land Management and focused on a $4 billion, 1,700-mile electric transmission line project planned by Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power, including a 1,000-mile line that will run across southern Wyoming and Idaho.
“It was time,” said Bob Tarantola, a Rocky Mountain Power consultant. “We’ve had wind farm developers frustrated for years by lack of opportunity to deliver their power to customers.”
Tarantola said the proposed transmission lines will provide delivery for wind generators in Wyoming and geothermal-generated power in Idaho and beyond into Oregon.
In addition to Gateway West are companion projects like Gateway South from Wyoming to Arizona and TransWest from Wyoming to Las Vegas, Nevada.
All told, the projects will carry 10,000 megawatts of new electrical generation in and around Wyoming.
The Gateway West Transmission Line Project is composed of 11 segments of high voltage transmission lines that run between proposed or existing substations. These segments start at the proposed Windstar substation close to the Dave Johnston Power Plant near Glenrock and continue west until reaching the proposed Hemingway substation southwest of Boise, Idaho. In addition, the project will include nine substations or expansions of substations and ancillary facilities such as cathodic protection and communication systems.
The next open house scoping meeting is 3-7 p.m. today at the Jeffrey Center in Rawlins, 315 W. Pine Street. Scoping continues Wednesday at the Rock Springs BLM field office and Thursday at the Kemmerer High School, both from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
By Brodie Farquhar
9 June 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/06/11/gateway-scoping-process-rolls-on/