The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has granted a request from the City of Chino Hills to put underground a segment of Southern California Edison's Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRTP).
The CPUC agreed with the City's assertion that the design of the above-ground line ‘ignores community values and places an unfair and unreasonable burden on residents.’
Currently, the 3.5-mile segment of the 500 kV transmission line running through Chino Hills consists of massive transmission towers reaching nearly 200 feet tall and set in a narrow 150-foot right of way. The CPUC's decision ‘rectifies that disproportionate burden and finds that it is in the public interest to construct an underground alternative based on a single-circuit, two cables per phase design using cross-linked polyethylene cable.’
It will cost approximately $224 million to build the underground Chino Hills portion of the line.
The TRTP is part of a series of new and upgraded high-voltage electric transmission lines to deliver electricity from wind farms in the Tehachapi wind source area north of Los Angeles to customers and the California power grid
