We’re committed to more renewable power for California’s future, and the Calcite Substation Project in Lucerne Valley is designed to help. This project will connect new renewable generation projects in the San Bernardino County High Desert to the transmission grid.
Lucerne Valley and San Bernardino County
The Calcite Substation (Calcite) is a 220 kilovolt (kV) substation planned to connect NextEra’s Ord Mountain’s 60 megawatt (MW) photo voltaic solar project. Calcite will be located in the unincorporated community of Lucerne Valley, San Bernardino County.
In February 2016, the planning process for the proposed Calcite Substation was initiated to interconnect the NextEra Ord Mountain to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) controlled electric grid following the execution of a Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (LGIA) among NextEra, SCE and CAISO. The County of San Bernardino is the lead agency for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Review for the NextEra Ord Mountain Solar Project. While the Calcite Substation is under the jurisdiction of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), San Bernardino County will provide CEQA review of SCE work.
In October 2016, NextEra submitted their application to the County of San Bernardino for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP). NextEra included the SCE Calcite Substation Project description in its Initial Study submitted to the County. The CPUC has been made aware of the SCE & NextEra’s joint efforts. After certification of the environmental review and issuance of a CUP by San Bernardino County, SCE will request a Permit to Construct the Calcite Substation from the CPUC.
In addition to the LGIA with NextEra for Ord Mountain, CAISO and SCE have executed an LGIA with Aurora for their Sorrel 200 MW project; however, Aurora has not requested interconnection from SCE, and therefore planning efforts for Calcite are linked only with the NextEra, Ord Mountain Project.
Calcite is on the same site formerly called the proposed Jasper Substation which had been planned in 2010 to interconnect a now inactive project by RES America for the Granite Mountain Wind Project. Work stopped on the Jasper Substation when Granite Mountain was terminated in 2013.
Work started again in February 2016 to support NextEra’s Ord Mountain 60 MW solar project and Aurora’s Sorrel 200 MW solar project.