LS Power Selected a Third Time by California ISO for Competitively Procured Transmission Project

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Mar 02, 2020, 15:00 ET

NEW YORK, March 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LS Power Grid California, LLC has been selected by the California Independent System Operator (California ISO or CAISO) to finance, construct, own, operate and maintain the Round Mountain 500 kV Area Dynamic Reactive Power Support Project.

This represents LS Power's third competitively procured transmission award by the CAISO. The Round Mountain Project was deemed a critical reliability project by CAISO to mitigate high transmission voltages on the northern California grid.

The CAISO conducted a competitive selection process pursuant to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order No. 1000 and selected LS Power's proposal from a total of 12 qualified proposals, all of which contained some form of cost containment to protect consumers. The CAISO selection report stated that LS Power's proposal "will provide lower cost, greater rate certainty, and less cost risk than the proposals of the other project sponsors."

LS Power's project is designed for high availability, meets or exceeds the CAISO specifications, includes cost containment guarantees and will result in costs that are a fraction of the estimated cost provided by the local incumbent utility to the CAISO. "The selection of LS Power's proposal for the Round Mountain project, together with the selection of LS Power's proposal for the Gates transmission project in January 2020, is expected to save California consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. It is significant that all bidders proposed some form of cost containment – a reflection of the value of FERC Order No. 1000 competitive windows. It is clear that consumers would benefit from opening up more projects like this to competition across the U.S.," said Paul Thessen, President of LS Power.

LS Power's competitive transmission project awards from CAISO date back to 2016, when affiliate DesertLink, LLC was awarded the Harry Allen to Eldorado 500 kV Transmission Project, a 60-mile transmission line that is under construction and planned to be placed in service by May 2020.

"We are pleased that CAISO recognized the benefits of our proposal and look forward to working with stakeholders to implement this important project," said Thessen. The Project to be constructed by LS Power consists of two static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) units and a new 500 kV switching station to be installed in rural Shasta County, California, interconnecting the two existing Round Mountain to Table Mountain 500 kV transmission lines. The in-service date is planned for June 2024.

About LS Power: LS Power Grid California, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of LS Power. LS Power is a development, investment and operating company focused on the North American power and energy infrastructure sector. Since its inception in 1990, LS Power has consistently been at the leading edge of the industry's evolution, often introducing or commercializing new technologies and developing new markets. To date, LS Power has developed, constructed, managed or acquired more than 42,000 MW of power generation, including utility scale solar, wind, hydro, natural gas-fired and battery storage projects, and over 630 miles of transmission, for which it has raised in excess of $45 billion in debt and equity financing to support North American infrastructure. Additionally, LS Power actively invests in businesses and platforms focused on distributed energy resources and energy efficiency. For more information, please visit www.LSPower.com.

SOURCE LS Power