California's Imperial Irrigation District manager discusses influx of new queue applications and queue changes
California's Imperial Irrigation District (IID) has seen an influx of new large generator interconnection requests in its queue, topping 25 new applications as of April 30.
The IID, which covers all of Imperial County and a portion of Riverside County, has a peak load of 1.1 GW and is seeing most of the proposed projects located in Imperial County. By comparison, applications last year totaled 17 while the number hovered around 10 for years before 2022.
Lauren Silva, manager of energy business and regulatory compliance for IID, told NPM that only 11 new applications are publicly visible in the queue as the new filings are being processed. As of May 1, the IID queue has been closed due to the inundation of applications.
Silva said it isn’t clear what is driving the increase in applications but pointed to California’s updated state renewable portfolio mandates calling for more clean energy and news that the IID queue was being closed might have driven interest by “people [who] wanted to get their application in prior to that.”
Three of the existing queue application projects need a new transmission line from IID to CAISO. To accommodate this, IID is pursuing the new 230 kV Salton Sea Transmission Line project with a commercial operation date (COD) of 2026. However, the recent influx of project applications will not tie into that line.
Silva stated that the IID is doing a reform to its Open Access Transmission Tariff, moving toward a process “more like what others in the industry are doing.” If approved by the IID board, the process will become a First-Ready, First-Served approach rather than the previous First-Come, First-Served approach.
Additionally, the IID will be adopting a cluster process to help handle the increase in applications to the queue.
“Due to the inundation of interconnection requests, our lines are being slowly saturated so we’re having to upgrade our lines in order to accommodate the transmission capabilities for these projects,” Silva said.
In addition to the new Salton Sea line, IID is upgrading its 230 kV S Line and its 92 kV R Line. The R Line has a generator interconnection agreement already attached with the Titan Solar 2 LLC. Titan Solar 2 LLC is going to upgrade the line to interconnect its 30 MW solar and storage project.
According to NPM data, the 98 MWdc Titan Solar 1 Energy Project was developed Sunpin Solar. The project is situated on a 569-acre parcel between the Salton Sea and Anze Borrego Desert State Park in Imperial County, California. It reached COD in 2020.
*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.
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