We just got some great news from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). They just announced the completion and deployment of the Sunrise Powerlink, a 500,000-volt transmission line linking San Diego to the Imperial Valley, one of the most renewable-rich regions in California.
The Sunrise Powerlink is capable of bringing initially up to 800 megawatts of additional imported power into San Diego, and will play an especially important role this summer, as the line was originally designed to do.
Eventually, the transmission line will eventually carry 1,000 megawatts of power, or enough energy to serve 650,000 homes. SDG&E and the California Independent System Operator Corporation (CAISO), the agency that manages most of the statewide grid, consider the Sunrise Powerlink one of the important mitigation measures that will help maintain electric reliability during heat waves without power from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
What it means for AIS:
According to Ken Carter, the vice president of data center operations at AIS, the completion of the Sunrise Powerlink increases the ability of SDGE to sustain and support increased demand during the peak period later this summer. With the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) offline, SDGE responded to suggestions from AIS and other Major Consumer Advisory Panel (MCAP) members to take additional measures to ensure that we are not faced with the series of brown-outs we saw last year, culminating in the September 8th black-out. While AIS stands prepared to respond to these type of outages with redundant emergency stand-by power to support our clients for up to 48 hours before re-fuel is requried, it is always preferred that it not be necessary; most notably because while applications and hardware may not be affected while on generator, we realize that the absence of energy at clients offices can be impacting. We have worked diligently over the past several months with SDGE to ensure that all measures are being taken to ensure that this year’s peak period is “non-impacting” to everyone.
