9. Positions of the Parties

Joint Parties conclude from the results of the scenario analysis that the need for added transfer capability from Southern California to the Southwest for reliability is unlikely before 2008. However, they believe that new transmission projects may be justified on economic grounds. They recommend that further analysis be done on the economic need for additional transfer capability through the RFP process described above.

Coral Power argues that the Joint Study ignores a critical need for transmission upgrades along the SDG&E/Mexico transmission intertie ("Path 45"). Path 45 is the transmission path between Mexico and the Southern California system, and is jointly owned by SDG&E and CFE. It is comprised of a western leg (Tijuana-Miguel) and an eastern leg (La Rosita-Imperial Valley). Coral Power argues that Path 45's current import capacity of 408 MW will not be sufficient to accommodate CFE's planned exports of up to 800 MW, plus additional output from generation projects being developed in Northern Mexico and the US-Mexico border area of SDG&E's service territory.

In Coral Power's view, upgrades on SDG&E's southern in-state transmission system are also critically important in order to enable new generation capacity to reliably supply Southern California load. Specifically, Coral Power contends that up to 4,120 MW of new capacity will be developed and much of it will be located on the east side of Miguel substation. In order to make this new generation readily available to Southern California, Coral argues that an upgrade to SDG&E's 230 kV Mission-Miguel line (west of Miguel) is necessary.

SSRC submitted testimony on the implications of the Joint Testimony for SDG&E's proposed Valley-Rainbow 500 kV transmission line (A.01-03-036). In SSRC's view, the matrix analysis does not provide any evidence that an in-state link such as the Valley-Rainbow 500 kV line, or its electrical equivalent, is needed for reliability or other reasons in the study period of 2001-2011.