Utility gets nod to build 416-mile power line across US West
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — U.S. land managers Thursday said they’ve given final permission for a 416-mile transmission line that would connect wind farms in eastern Wyoming with customers in Utah and elsewhere across the West.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said it has notified Portland-based PacifiCorp it can proceed with its Energy Gateway South Transmission line. It will run from the Medicine Bow, Wyoming area, across northwestern Colorado and end near Mona, Utah, south of Salt Lake City.
The Biden administration has promoted renewable energy in the West but delivering that power to customers will require major upgrades to the nation’s aging electrical grid.
Gateway South is part of a broader plan by PacifiCorps to install roughly 2,000 miles of new transmission lines across the West at an estimated cost of $8 billion.
Construction on Gateway South is expected to begin in June. In August PacifiCorps expects to start work on part of another line, known as Gateway West, that would stretch across 75 miles in eastern Wyoming. said utility spokesperson Tiffany Erickson. The two projects combined will cost an estimated $2.2 billion and they are expected to be in service by late 2024, she said.
