Bootleg Fire rages through Oregon, threatening California's electricity supply

[mahatmakanejeeves]

It's possible that the route of California Oregon Intertie, the Pacific Alternating Current Intertie, goes through the area affected by the fire.

Path 66



Pacific Intertie transmission routes



A dual-circuit 500 kV line forming a part of the connection between Path 66 and Path 15.

California Oregon Intertie (COI), identified as Path 66 by Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), is a corridor of three roughly parallel 500 kV alternating current power lines connecting the electric grids of Oregon and California. Their combined power transmission capacity is 4800 MW.

Two of the power lines run from Malin Substation southeast of Klamath Falls, Oregon to Round Mountain Substation northeast of Redding, California. One of them is owned by Western Area Power Administration, the other by Pacific Gas and Electric and PacifiCorp jointly. These lines are a part of Pacific AC Intertie and were completed in the 1960s. The third line runs from Captain Jack Substation near Malin to Olinda Substation south of Redding. It is a part of California-Oregon Transmission Project, the project manager is the Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC), a joint venture of several public utilities. It was completed in 1993.

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Climate and Environment

Bootleg Fire rages through Oregon, threatening California’s electricity supply

By Bryan Pietsch and Paulina Firozi
July 12, 2021 | Updated today at 7:47 a.m. EDT

The Bootleg Fire has burned more than 143,000 acres in southwest Oregon as of Sunday evening, as officials had warned of continued “dangerous and rapid growth” and much of the western United States continues to endure yet another heat wave.

The National Weather Service in Medford said on Sunday that the fire had doubled in size every day for the past three days, leaving California’s electricity supply at risk and forcing officials to order the evacuation of at least hundreds of residents. As of Sunday evening, more than 900 firefighters were battling the fire, which isn’t expected to be contained until July 27.

Across parts of Klamath County, which is about 110 miles south of Bend, level three — “go now” — evacuations were ordered. The Klamath County Sheriff’s Office has started issuing citations and said it would make arrests to keep people out of those evacuation areas. Despite the days-long evacuation advisory, compliance has not been universal in the restricted area, it said.

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The California Independent System Operator, which manages electricity for a power grid that serves 80 percent of California, warned that the Bootleg Fire had made transmission lines from Oregon “unreliable.” The operator Link to tweet
?s=21" target="_blank">issued an alert for Monday evening, urging customers to conserve energy to help stabilize the power grid.

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By Paulina Firozi
Paulina Firozi is a reporter covering national and breaking news. She joined The Washington Post in 2017 and was previously a researcher for PowerPost's The Health 202 and The Energy 202 newsletters. Twitter https://twitter.com/paulina_milla