Frequently Asked Questions
What type of power will be carried on this line? Will it carry just renewable energy or electricity generated from all sources?
The Cascade Renewable Transmission (“CRT”) line is being developed to support statewide clean energy policy requirements and solve the most challenging issue for the region, which is to increase transmission capacity across the Cascade Mountains to serve the growing loads along the I-5 corridor from Seattle to Portland. Transmission capacity across the Cascades is required to access new energy generation in the greater Pacific Northwest including Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho, as well as the desert Southwest. Most of that proposed new generation is renewable energy like wind, solar, and geothermal. CRT will be a catalyst for the proposed new renewable energy resources connecting to the grid.
As a real-world example of potential CRT impacts, CRT will help relieve an existing north-south transmission constraint that prevents inexpensive solar energy from California from reaching load along the I-5 corridor north of Salem, OR. CRT will assist in optimizing the use of the region’s existing renewable energy sources and reduce reliance on fossil fueled generation plants west of the Cascades.
CRT will be subject to the oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). FERC will require CRT to provide open access to all electric energy participants in the Pacific Northwest.
Who will be the customers for the power carried on this line?
CRT is currently working with multiple parties to help them understand the benefits they could derive from the CRT transmission line. Those parties include Portland General Electric (“PGE”), Puget Sound Energy (“PSE”), and publicly owned utility customers of Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”), such as Clark Public Utilities and Seattle City Light. CRT will ultimately reach agreement with one or more parties who value the benefits that the CRT transmission line can provide for their customers.
The party or parties that execute an agreement with CRT for use of the transmission line will control how the line is utilized, what generating resources are accessed with the transmission line, and the end use customers who will benefit from the transmission line.
Will power carried on this line be used by data centers?
CRT started developing this project in 2020 to support Pacific Northwest clean energy mandates and the need – which has increased significantly in the intervening years – to meet regional reliability needs.
CRT is not being developed to serve any specific data center or other individual customer. Rather, it is intended to provide additional transmission capacity that benefits utilities and their customers across the region.
CRT’s end customer(s) will be local or regional utilities. In every instance, large industrial customers including data centers receive electric service from the utility, public utility district (“PUD”), or municipal utility (“Muni”). For example, a data center seeking to locate in Seattle would work with Seattle City Light to obtain electric service. The applicant will be subject to utility and regulatory scrutiny in obtaining the agreement and associated electric rates.
Is this line necessary only to meet the growing energy demand caused by data centers?
No. CRT is needed to meet the regional load growth that is occurring apart from future energy demands from data centers. This is due to a variety of reasons that have increased electricity demand, such as: hotter summer seasons in the Pacific Northwest that have resulted in more air conditioners; incentives to encourage the use of heat pumps over thermal furnaces; Seattle ports transitioning to use electric onshore power, rather than onboard diesel engines, while ships are in port; and
the transition to electric vehicles. These and other trends in the region are spurring electric load growth that is driving the need for the CRT transmission line.
Electricity rates have been going up in the past few years. Will this line further raise electricity rates?
No. In fact, studies have indicated that the overall cost of complying with Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act (“CETA”) and Oregon’s HB2021 is lower with the CRT transmission line than without it. By increasing the ability to move renewable energy from areas where it is generated to where it is needed CRT helps optimize utilization of the renewable resource fleet. As a result, fewer renewable resources may need to be built to meet the requirements of CETA and HB2021, reducing overall system costs.
Today’s need for transmission reflects how the Pacific Northwest power system was developed. Much of the region’s high voltage transmission system was constructed by BPA between 1950 and 1975 to transmit the low-cost hydro resources throughout the region. While electricity demand has continued to grow, very little bulk transmission has been built over the last 50 years. At the same time, load growth has increased with the trend toward clean energy and electrification. The result has been to use up the excess capacity of the transmission system built by BPA decades ago. To achieve future economic expansion along the I-5 corridor, maintain reliability of the electric system, and achieve CETA and HB2021 goals at the lowest cost, incremental east-to-west transmission like CRT needs to be built.
What will be the impact of the dredging required to install this line under the riverbed?
Mechanical dredging will not occur except for the temporary installation of four three-sided cofferdams; for these, sediment will be removed and then replaced when the cofferdams are removed. Temporary removal of sediments for the cofferdams is approximately 6,500 cubic yards for each.
Installation of the cable itself does not require conventional dredging, instead the cable is installed using water jets that create a temporary trench approximately 24-inches wide and 10 feet deep. The water jets fluidize the sediment, which consists primarily of coarse sand. Approximately 75 percent of the sediment will settle back into the trench during installation, naturally covering the cable. On this basis, the volume of sediment temporarily displaced into the water column would be less than 100,000 cubic yards.
For context, the US Army Corps of Engineers dredges 9.2 million cubic yards of sediment from the Columbia River each year to maintain the federal navigation channel. The temporary sediment displaced by CRT, which will occur only once during construction, equals approximately 1.1 percent of the volume dredged by the Corps each year.
Will permitting a transmission line under the riverbed set a precedent for more in-river energy activities?
No, for a number of reasons. Projects such as CRT must be uniquely designed to meet both constructability and environmental requirements; they are not “cookie cutter” projects. CRT’s in-river route has been carefully chosen to take into account the geology of the riverbed while avoiding sensitive habitat, submerged cultural resources, and impacts to navigation and other uses of the river. Any future project proposed after CRT would face significant challenges. It would need to avoid physical and electrical interference with CRT, demonstrate economically viability, and undergo the same rigorous federal and state review process. Project proponents would also need to demonstrate a clear need for the project that cannot reasonably be met in any other way. This would be a very high bar to clear.
