The State of Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Council has voted unanimously to approve an application for a permit to construct and operate the TransWest Express transmission link.
The 1175 km-long high-voltage line will extend from Wyoming to Nevada and will provide western electricity markets with access to power from wind farms and other energy resources.
The council’s seven-member panel heard testimony from TransWest representatives at a public hearing in Saratoga, Wyoming, before deliberating and making its decision.
The council is the ruling entity of the Wyoming Industrial Siting Division, part of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
TransWest chief executive Ben Miller said: “We appreciate the state’s careful review of TransWest’s detailed application over the past several months.
“We anticipate beginning construction next year on this critical energy infrastructure.”
The project’s northern terminal and about 148km of line is located in Wyoming.
Before approving the permit, the council had to determine that the link complied with all applicable law, did not pose a threat to the environment or to area residents, and met other important criteria.
The project’s Wyoming terminal will be constructed within the Overland Trail Ranch, south of Rawlins and Sinclair, and will interconnect with the local power grid.
The line then extends as a high-voltage direct current system to Millard County, Utah, where TransWest plans to build its Utah Terminal and to interconnect the project into the Intermountain Power transmission system.
From Utah, the line then extends as a HV alternating current system to southern Nevada near the Hoover Dam, where the California, Nevada and Arizona grids also interconnect.
Two-thirds of the total project route lies on federal land. Following eight years of comprehensive federal environmental analysis, federal rights-of-way, easements and licenses were granted by agencies 2017 and 2018.