Portland General Electric is proposing to build the Cascade Crossing Transmission Project to connect new and existing energy generating resources east of the Cascades to the Willamette Valley. The project includes:

• 22 miles of single circuit and 187 miles of double circuit, 500 kilovolt (kV) transmission line running from Boardman to Salem, Oregon.
• Three new substations and upgrades to two existing substations.
• Upgrades to existing systems in the Willamette Valley, including installation of new conductors on subtransmission lines in east Salem. Upgrades also may be required to PGE’s existing 230-kilovolt line from Salem to Oregon City.

Purpose of the Project
PGE is proposing Cascade Crossing to help meet Oregon’s growing energy needs, enable development of more renewable power projects and enhance reliability of the region’s electrical grid.

Maintaining a reliable flow of electricity
More transmission capacity is needed to ensure the continued reliability of the entire electrical grid, which keeps power flowing to all Oregon homes, farms and businesses.

Although Oregon has seen significant growth in population and industry in the last 25 years, no major transmission projects have been built to reinforce the grid. As a result, the transmission system is nearing capacity.

When there is not adequate transmission capacity, lines become congested and reliability problems can occur. Congested lines are essentially clogged, leaving no room for additional electricity to flow to homes and businesses.

Enabling more renewable energy
Cascade Crossing would provide transmission access for renewable power, including wind projects that are planned in locations that are not currently served by transmission. Already, three wind power developers east of the Cascades have filed formal requests with PGE to connect to Cascade Crossing for transmission.

PGE is committed to reducing climate change by adding more renewable power to our energy portfolio. In addition, more wind, solar and other renewable energy projects are needed to meet Oregon’s Renewable Energy Standard, which requires utilities like PGE to provide 15 percent of our power with renewable energy by 2015, 20 percent by 2020 and 25 percent by 2025.

Meeting Oregon’s growing energy needs
In order to grow Oregon’s economy and attract new jobs, more transmission will be needed to move electricity to the homes and businesses that need it. Without more transmission added to the grid, the Pacific Northwest is expected to lose business opportunities to other regions.

A study conducted by Idaho National Labs and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded if the top five planned transmission projects in the Pacific Northwest are not built, the region will lose up to 60,000 jobs and $85 billion in economic activity each year over the next 25 years. The study identified PGE’s Cascade Crossing project as one of those top five projects.