Groundbreaking celebrates One Nevada transmission line

It was a ground-breaking for what utility officials say is a ground-breaking project.

Political leaders and power executives gathered Tuesday at NV Energy's under-construction Harry Allen Generating Station in Apex, about 20 miles north of Las Vegas, to celebrate the launch of the One Nevada transmission line (ON Line). The 500-kilovolt line will marry Nevada's northern and southern grids and bring renewable energy from rural areas into the state's urban markets. But ON Line's biggest contributions to Nevada will come in job formation and export potential, those at Tuesday's event agreed.

Start with those jobs: ON Line will generate 400 construction positions during its building, and will yield indirect jobs tied to the rural renewable-energy development for which ON Line will create markets.

"The hundreds of Nevadans who will work on this line will help us unleash Nevada's clean-energy potential, and will help us connect the northern and southern ends of our state," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "These are good-paying jobs that can never be outsourced. This line will soon start to employ Nevadans, and it will always employ Nevadans."

Reid also predicted that ON Line would help make Nevada "energy-independent," with no need for energy imports, in three years. Plus, he said, the line will eventually enable the Silver State to export renewable power to California, where laws require the state to obtain a third of its power from clean sources by 2020.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar called ON Line's launch "monumental," and said it was "a great day" for Nevada's citizens.

"The time is here in making the new energy frontier a reality, in creating jobs for the people of Nevada, and in making sure that our economic and environmental security are protected in the 21st century," Salazar said.

NV Energy will build and own the $510 million ON Line in a partnership with Great Basin Transmission, an affiliate of New York-based grid developer LS Power. NV Energy will own 25 percent of the line, while Great Basin will own 75 percent, though NV Energy will buy Great Basin's share in a long-term agreement.

Michael Yackira, chief executive officer of NV Energy, called ON Line "a critical element of Nevada's energy future."

"Transmission infrastructure is essential to provide more opportunities for renewable energy and its development in Nevada," Yackira said. "With the enormous amount of geothermal that exists in the northern part of our state that has yet to be developed, ON Line will make these additional renewable resources a reality for the benefit of Nevadans throughout the state."

Added Mike Segal, chairman of LS Power: "ON Line will improve the reliability and efficiency of the Western power grid and connect renewable resources to customers who want them and need them."

The U.S. Department of Energy agreed Monday to guarantee $350 million in loans for Great Basin's share of the line's construction. NV Energy will bring $130 million in funding to the table, including $60 million in equity from investors and $70 million in debt.

ON Line is the largest transmission project to receive funding from the Department of Energy's stimulus funds.

"Nevada's families and businesses need a strong, reliable grid that can leverage the renewable energy the state has to offer, and the ON Line project does just that," said Jonathan Silver, the agency's executive director of loan programs.

Silver added that Nevada is key to the Obama administration's plans to double the nation's green-energy output by 2012. ON Line is the 20th project overall to receive financial assistance through the department's loan-programs division; the bureau's $25 billion in loans and guarantees also includes $80 million for the Blue Mountain geothermal project in Humboldt County.

But it's ON Line that will allow Las Vegans to tap into Blue Mountain's power.

ON Line began as two distinct but similar projects that LS Power and NV Energy were pursuing separately. In January, the companies announced they'd join forces and build one line, which will run 235 miles from Apex to Ely. LS Power will later build separate spurs linking ON Line to grids in Idaho and California.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.