Boise-based Idaho Power Co. this week will formally unveil a long-term plan to expand and improve the electricity-transmission system in the greater Blaine County region.
Company officials will present the proposed Wood River Electrical Plan tonight, March 12, from 6-8 p.m. at the Community Campus in Hailey. They will also present the plan to Lincoln County residents Thursday, March 13, from 6-8 p.m. at the Mason Lodge in Shoshone.
Idaho Power is asking residents to offer comments on the plan, which outlines electrical projects over the next several decades. The top-priority project—adding transmission capacity between Hailey and Ketchum—is expected to be launched later this year.
That proposal calls for installing a 138,000-kilovolt transmission line between the Wood River Transmission Station in Hailey and a substation in Ketchum.
Other high-priority projects in the plan include:
- Building a new substation—the Burmah Substation—south of Timmerman Hill, in southern Blaine County or northern Lincoln County.
- Installing a new 138,000-kilovolt line from the Midpoint Substation near Shoshone to the Burmah Substation.
- Installing a new 138,000-kilovolt transmission line from the Burmah Substation to the Silver Substation near Picabo.
- Installing a new 138,000-kilovolt line from the Burmah Substation to the Moonstone Substation east of Fairfield.
The cost of the entire plan is estimated at $78 million, in 2007 dollars.
