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500-kilovolt Golden Pacific Powerlink could dip into OC, IE, but it’s not a done deal

August 11, 2026

A major transmission line proposed by San Diego Gas & Electric will cost an estimated $1.62 billion, the utility said Monday.

SDG&E wants to build what’s been dubbed the Golden Pacific Powerlink — a 500-kilovolt line that would act as an electricity corridor running about 150 miles from Imperial Valley in the east to the border of San Diego and Orange counties in the west using overhead power lines.

“I can say it is SDG&E’s largest capital project,” said Erica Martin, SDG&E’s director of project development. “It would be the longest 500 KV transmission line in our service territory.”

The Golden State Powerlink is not a done deal.

It is in the early phases of a regulatory process that includes public discussion on the line’s value, feasibility, environmental impact and routing. Ultimately, the California Public Utilities Commission will have the final say.

If the transmission line wins approval, the cost of the project will be spread among all ratepayers served by the California Independent System Operator, which manages about 80% of the state’s electrical grid. Of that, SDG&E customers will shoulder 9% of the financial burden.

“It is a cost that is spread over the life of the asset, so it’s not an immediate one-time cost,” Martin said. “It would be factored in over the use of the transmission line,” which would have an expected service time of multiple decades.

The proposal originated as part of a 180-page transmission plan for some 45 infrastructure projects requested by the grid operator, known as the CAISO.

The plan cited assumptions that the power system needs to add more than 40 gigawatts of new resources over the next 10 years to keep the electric grid reliable and resilient — as well as meeting California’s clean energy mandates.

The Golden Pacific Powerlink plans to go from SDG&E’s existing Imperial Valley substation and then connect to a still-to-be-constructed substation where San Diego and Orange counties meet — just north of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and Camp Pendleton.

But the proposed line has met opposition on multiple fronts.

A chunk of about 25 miles of the Golden Pacific Powerlink plans to run through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the largest state park in California and home to diverse wildlife and vegetation. The Anza-Borrego Foundation doesn’t want the high-voltage lines touching any portion of the park.

“It is home to the most endemic species, meaning these species live nowhere else than Anza-Borrego — the registered and listed endangered species of the Peninsular Bighorn Sheep, among several birds and reptiles, along with Kumeyaay sensitive burial sites that are in the path of this entire line,” foundation Executive Director Bri Fordem told the Union-Tribune in April.

Farther west, an initial route preferred by SDG&E would see the transmission line cross into portions of Riverside County and Temecula. That’s ignited protests from tourism groups, some residents and the city council of Temecula.

“Progress should never come at the expense of the people it claims to serve,” Mark Winkler, president of Save Temecula said in a statement ahead of a rally on July 31.

On July 20, the Fallbrook Community Planning Group came out unanimously against the Golden Pacific Powerlink, citing concerns about areas in high-fire risks and calling the transmission towers that can rise 200 feet in height “monstrous.”

Jim Desmond of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors opposes it, saying on X, “The character of these places (in North County), the whole reason people moved here, gets traded away for a line that is just passing through to somewhere else.”

Just after 5 p.m. Monday, SDG&E released a map on the Golden Pacific Powerlink’s website showing a route covering about 150 miles, where the utility prefers the transmission line should go.

But the map also included three alternative routes, as part of SDG&E’s required review under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which makes up the company’s formal application to the Public Utilities Commission.

One of the alternative routes would reduce the project’s footprint in the Anza-Borrego Desert by about nine miles, and go through the community of Borrego Springs instead.

Another alternate segment would bypass the city of Temecula and send a portion of the project south, along Palomar Mountain.

“In every spot, we’re trading one impact for another, truly,” Martin said. “And this is part of the process.”

SDG&E also released a schedule to host four open houses where the public can talk with staff members of the Golden Pacific staff, get more information, comment and provide feedback.

The open houses will be held:

Aug. 25 at the Fallbrook Community Center, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Aug. 26 at the Embassy Suites in Temecula, 4 to 7 p.m.
Oct. 13 at the El Centro Community Center, 4 to 7 p.m., and
Oct. 14 at the Borrego Springs Resort, 4 to 7 p.m.

Pending approval, SDG&E looks to start construction in the fall of 2029. The CAISO has requested the transmission corridor go into service in mid-2023 or “2034 at the latest,” Martin previously told the Union-Tribune.

All the lines in the $1.62 billion project would go above-ground, Martin said, and none would be placed underground.

As for the proposed substation at the western end of the project, Horizon West Transmission LLC will build it. No exact location has been released yet.

Orange County Register

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500-kilovolt Golden Pacific Powerlink could dip into OC, IE, but it’s not a done deal

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