April 26, 2024 |
Photo – Gateway South Transmission Line – Courtesy Energy Services West
Representatives from Rocky Mountain Power provided a quarterly report about powerline projects in Carbon County.
Rocky Mountain Power is the Pacificorp subsidiary that provides electrical energy to Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. The company is currently working on several transmission line and substation upgrade projects in Carbon County.
During the April 16th Board of Carbon County Commissioners meeting, Rocky Mountain Power Director of Project Delivery Brandon Smith said the Gateway South transmission line is nearly finished. Gateway South is a 416-mile-long high voltage line running from the wind turbines near Medicine Bow to Utah, 107.7 miles of which goes through Carbon County. Smith said the transmission towers have been built and only one percent of the electrical lines in the county are left to install.
Smith said he expects the line to be energized by the end of October.
This summer, Smith said reclamation work will begin on the areas around the transmission towers. The Rocky Mountain Power representative said his company is in talks with TransWest Express LLC to determine which of the shared county roads his company is responsible for repairing.
Smith said work has begun to expand the Aeolus electrical substation, north of Medicine Bow. The Rocky Mountain Power representative said he is working with County Road and Bridge Superintendent Kandis Fritz and the Wyoming Department of Transportation to get three large transformers moved to the Aeolus substation without damaging any roads.
Smith said he is expecting four more transformers to arrive in the area by the end of June. The electrical equipment was delivered to holding yards around Laramie. Smith assured Carbon County Commissioner Sue Jones that the county would receive its share of the tax revenue from the purchase of the transformers.
Rocky Mountain Power is also constructing a high voltage Gateway West line from Aeolus to Casper. Smith said work is over halfway finished, with work in Carbon County expected to be completed in five months.
Smith said a new transmission line between the Aeolus and Freezeout Substations is also halfway done. The Rocky Mountain Power representative said work should be completed soon after Bureau of Land Management mandated restrictions against disturbing nesting sage grouse are lifted.
Rocky Mountain Power is proposing a new 143-mile-long 500 kilovolt transmission line from the Shirley Basin to the Anticline Substation in Casper. Smith said the Bureau of Land Management has accepted his company’s Right of Way application and development work is proceeding. Smith said he is working with Wyoming Game and Fish to avoid disturbing wildlife as much as possible.
Smith said TransWest Express is also constructing a transmission line between Carbon and Natrona Counties. Rocky Mountain Power will investigate if it can use a similar route as the other company for its Anticline to Shirley Basin line, said Smith.
Smith said the environmental analysis of the Anticline to Shirley Basin transmission line project will take several years. He said construction isn’t expected to begin until the early 2030’s.
In a document presented to the Carbon County Commissioners, all PacifiCorp and Rocky Mountain Power facilities in the county are expected to generate $8.3 million in property taxes from October of 2023 to May of 2024. The company is also set to pay $700,000 in Wyoming Wind Tax.
The document also states that, to date, the Gateway South transmission line project has generated $3.5 million in sales tax for Carbon County. Other projects have brought an additional $2.7 million in sales tax to our area.
