20160930City of Sun Valley Comments.pdf

Mayor
Peter M. Hendlicks
Council
Keith Saks, Council President
Michelle Gliffith
Jane Conard
Brad Dufur
September 29, 2016
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To Idaho Power Company and the Idaho State Public Utilities Commission:
The City of Sun Valley would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the Wood
River-to-Ketchum 138 kV Redundant Transmission Line project. The proposed line enters the City of Sun
Valley at its southern boundary before passing through the City of Ketchum to the Ketchum Substation,
which is actually located within Sun Valley city limits.
After several meetings with representatives from Idaho Power over the last year, and culminating with
the well-attended community meeting on August 181h, the City has been thoroughly informed on the
purpose and need, as well as the impacts of potential routing options. At the regular City Council
meeting of September 15
\ the Council unanimously agreed on the following project scope and
components:
1) That the redundant line project is necessary and vital for our community, which is
geographically isolated, has substantial wildfire risk, relies heavily on tourism during the winter,
and experiences severe winter weather. Though previous large outage events occurred on
sections of transmission line south of the project area, it's only a matter of time before the poor
condition of the Wood River-to-Elkhorn line leads to failures -possibly in our most vulnerable
periods of the year -hampering the economy and potentially causing property damage due to
plumbing freeze-ups.
2) That the best location at which to underground the line is near the intersection of Highway 75
and Elkhorn Road, because it offers the best combination of low project cost and low visual
impacts to the combined communities of Ketchum and Sun Valley. With no additional increase in
P.O. Box416 • SUN VALLEY, ID 83353 • 208-622-4438 • FAX [phone]
www.sunvalley.govoffice.com
Idaho Power Company and the Idaho State Public Utilities Commission
September 29, 2016
Page 2 of 2
rates to local ratepayers, and no additional taxation districts or surcharge administration
required, this option is also the easiest to implement.
The City of Sun Valley understands that this line will provide the opportunity to eventually replace the
aging and dilapidated Wood River-to-Elkhorn line, which is also important to maintaining the reliability of
electrical power in our community.
The City appreciates the additional capacity this line will provide for renewable energy which is sourced
from wind, hydro, and solar projects outside of the Wood River Valley, but the City would also like to
affirm its position that -while the redundant line is necessary in the short and immediate term -further
study must be conducted to explore locally-generated alternative energy in the Wood River Valley. The
City supports the creation of local solar, wind, and geothermal energy generation as well as storage
options. These local projects will help insulate our community from further risk of catastrophic outages
and will create local jobs & investment.
Thank you again for this opportunity to provide comment in support of the Wood River-to-Ketchum
138kV Redundant Transmission Line project. Please keep us apprised of any developments in the project.
Sincerely,
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Peter M . Hendricks, Mayor
City of Sun Valley
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