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Title: Sutter Power Project Final Environmental Impact Statement

Abstract

Western Area Power Administration operates and maintains a high-voltage electric transmission system in California to deliver power to qualified customers. Calpine Corporation has requested that Western study and consider the feasibility of an interconnection with Western's Keswick-Elverta/Olinda-Elverta 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines. Calpine proposed to construct and operate of the Sutter Power Project. The project, as proposed, would include a 500 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fueled, combined-cycle, electric generation facility; a new 5.7 mile 230-kV generation tie-line; a transmission line switching station; and a 12-mile (16 inch) natural gas pipeline to connect with Pacific Gas and Electric's Line 302. The siting of the project's generation facility is proposed on a portion of a 77-acre parcel of land owned by Calpine, adjacent to Calpine's existing Greenleaf 1 cogeneration powerplant in Sutter County, approximately 7 miles south of Yuba City and 36 miles northwest of Sacramento. Calpine's stated objective for developing the Sutter Powerplant is to sell power to a mix of retail and wholesale customers in the newly deregulated electricity market. As a ''merchant plant,'' Calpine intends to sell power on a short and mid-term basis to customers, and on the spot market. On July 29, 1998, Western issued a Sutter Powerplant Interconnectionmore » Feasibility Study. The study results indicated that the output from the proposed Sutter Powerplant Project would improve system reliability in the generation deficient Sacramento area. Based on Western's interest in improving system reliability and as the owner of the transmission lines for the proposed project interconnection, Western is the lead federal agency responsible for the project's National Environmental Policy Act compliance. The California Energy Commission has the statutory authority to license thermal powerplants of 50 MW or greater. The Energy Commission's siting facility certification process has responsibilities that are functionally equivalent to those of a lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act. Because of these similar agency responsibilities to examine environmental impacts, Western and the Energy Commission are joint-lead agencies for this project's environmental review. Although this arrangement was successful during the scoping and ''Draft Environmental Impact Statement'' stages of review, the two agency processes were separated at the close of the ''Draft Environmental Impact Statement'' public comment period on December 14, 1998, to assure process integrity for each agency.« less

Publication Date:
Research Org.:
U.S. Department of Energy, Western Area Power Administration (US)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of NEPA Policy and Assistance (EH-42) (US)
OSTI Identifier:
823361
Report Number(s):
DOE/EIS-0294
TRN: US200433%%185
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 23 Apr 1999
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY; 03 NATURAL GAS; 24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION; COGENERATION; COMPLIANCE; ELECTRICITY; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS; ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY; MARKET; NATURAL GAS; PIPELINES; POWER TRANSMISSION LINES; RELIABILITY; SPOT MARKET; US NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT; WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION; EIS; CA; TRANSMISSION LINE; POWER PLANT

Citation Formats

. Sutter Power Project Final Environmental Impact Statement. United States: N. p., 1999. Web. doi:10.2172/823361.
. Sutter Power Project Final Environmental Impact Statement. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/823361
. 1999. "Sutter Power Project Final Environmental Impact Statement". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/823361. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/823361.
@article{osti_823361,
title = {Sutter Power Project Final Environmental Impact Statement},
author = {},
abstractNote = {Western Area Power Administration operates and maintains a high-voltage electric transmission system in California to deliver power to qualified customers. Calpine Corporation has requested that Western study and consider the feasibility of an interconnection with Western's Keswick-Elverta/Olinda-Elverta 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines. Calpine proposed to construct and operate of the Sutter Power Project. The project, as proposed, would include a 500 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fueled, combined-cycle, electric generation facility; a new 5.7 mile 230-kV generation tie-line; a transmission line switching station; and a 12-mile (16 inch) natural gas pipeline to connect with Pacific Gas and Electric's Line 302. The siting of the project's generation facility is proposed on a portion of a 77-acre parcel of land owned by Calpine, adjacent to Calpine's existing Greenleaf 1 cogeneration powerplant in Sutter County, approximately 7 miles south of Yuba City and 36 miles northwest of Sacramento. Calpine's stated objective for developing the Sutter Powerplant is to sell power to a mix of retail and wholesale customers in the newly deregulated electricity market. As a ''merchant plant,'' Calpine intends to sell power on a short and mid-term basis to customers, and on the spot market. On July 29, 1998, Western issued a Sutter Powerplant Interconnection Feasibility Study. The study results indicated that the output from the proposed Sutter Powerplant Project would improve system reliability in the generation deficient Sacramento area. Based on Western's interest in improving system reliability and as the owner of the transmission lines for the proposed project interconnection, Western is the lead federal agency responsible for the project's National Environmental Policy Act compliance. The California Energy Commission has the statutory authority to license thermal powerplants of 50 MW or greater. The Energy Commission's siting facility certification process has responsibilities that are functionally equivalent to those of a lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act. Because of these similar agency responsibilities to examine environmental impacts, Western and the Energy Commission are joint-lead agencies for this project's environmental review. Although this arrangement was successful during the scoping and ''Draft Environmental Impact Statement'' stages of review, the two agency processes were separated at the close of the ''Draft Environmental Impact Statement'' public comment period on December 14, 1998, to assure process integrity for each agency.},
doi = {10.2172/823361},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/823361}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 1999},
month = {Fri Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 1999}
}