Western Area Power Administration
(Western), an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), received a
request from Quartzsite Solar Energy, LLC (QSE) to interconnect its proposed
Quartzsite Solar Energy Project (Project) to Western's Bouse-Kofa 161-kilovolt
(kV) transmission line.
The proposed Project site is in an undeveloped area in
La Paz County, Arizona, east of State Route (SR) 95, approximately 10 miles
north of Quartzsite, Arizona, on lands administered by the U.S. Department of
Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
On December 21, 2012, the Notice
of Availability of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Yuma
Field Office (Yuma) Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendment (PRMPA) for
Quartzsite Solar Energy Project was published in the Federal Register (77 FR 75632). After considering the environmental
impacts, Western has decided to allow QSE's request for interconnection to
Western's transmission system on the Bouse-Kofa 161-kV transmission line and to
construct, own, and operate a new switchyard and its associated communication
pathway.
The proposed Project is a 100-megawatt
solar electric power plant that would use concentrating solar power technology
to capture the sun's heat to make steam, which would power a traditional steam
turbine generator. The proposed Project would contain the central receiver or
tower, a solar field consisting of mirrors or heliostats to reflect the sun's
energy to the central tower, a conventional steam turbine generator, insulated
storage tanks for hot and cold liquid salt, ancillary tanks, evaporation ponds,
a temporary construction laydown area, technical and non-technical buildings,
transformers and a 161/230-kV electrical switchyard, roads, and water wells.
All components of the proposed Project would be located on BLM-administered
land. A new 1.5-mile long 161/230-kV generation tie line would extend from the
southern boundary of the solar facility boundary to a new switchyard to be
constructed adjacent to Western's existing Bouse-Kofa 161-kV transmission line.
Western is a Federal agency under
the DOE that markets and transmits wholesale electrical power through an
integrated 17,000-circuit mile, high-voltage transmission system across 15
western states. Western's Open Access Transmission Service Tariff (Tariff)
provides open access to its electric transmission system. In reviewing
interconnection requests, Western must ensure that existing reliability and
service is not degraded. Western's Large Generator Interconnection Procedures
provide for transmission and system studies to ensure that system reliability
and service to existing customers are not adversely affected by new
interconnections.
In compliance with the NEPA, as
amended, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended,
Western as lead agency, with the BLM as a cooperating agency, prepared and
released the Draft EIS/PRMPA on November 10, 2011, and subsequently held public
hearings on the document in Yuma, Arizona, on December 13, 2011, and in
Quartzsite, Arizona, on December 14, 2011. Following the release of the Draft
EIS/PRMPA, Western and the BLM prepared a Final EIS/PRMPA which was released on
December 21, 2012 (77 FR 76477). The U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, the U.S. Army Garrison-Yuma Proving Ground, the Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality and the Arizona Game and Fish Department
(AZGFD) were also cooperating agencies.
