U.S. Interior Approves Gateway West Transmission Lines in Wyoming

The Bureau of Land Management on Sept. 9 announced the approval of two segments of the Gateway West Transmission line in Wyoming. The project is a part of PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion, a multi-year plan to add about 2,000 miles of new transmission across the West. The lines would help integrate up to 765 megawatts of new renewables into the grid while ensuring reliability of existing generation resources.

The two 230-kilovolt segments – referred to as “D1” – begin near Glenrock, Wyoming and terminate at a common junction in Carbon County, running parallel to each other for much of the area. One is a new 60 mile line starting from Windstar Substation and the other is rebuilding of a 58 mile line which starts at Dave Johnson Power Plant.

The first phase of the project, completed in 2019, consists of 160 miles of 230 kilovolt and 500 kilovolt transmission lines connecting Shirly Basin Substation to Jim Bridger Substation in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The second phase includes the 1000 mile Gateway West Transmission Line Project which will connect the substations near Glenrock Wyoming to Hemingway Substation near Boise, Idaho.

The bureau engaged with PacifiCorp, federal partners, and Wyoming to facilitate a collaborative approach to mitigate the impacts caused by the construction. The agency will work in collaboration with all partners and state to make sure that the project is timely and adequately completed with minimum impact of wildlife and resources surrounding the project zonal areas.

This project will not only meet the energy demand of the Wyoming state but will also add cleaner and low cost energy. The energy sector is growing rapidly in recent years, in 2022 specifically, in clean energy and the fossil fuel jobs are declining, according to a recent IEA report. The report found that the global employment ratio has increased hiring in the clean energy sector. Approximately 14 million new clean energy jobs are expected to be in the market till 2030.