CENSE proposes better solutions

On Tuesday, PSE decided which route the Energize Eastside transmission line will take if the company’s construction permits are approved.  As expected, PSE chose the same route as the current lines, next to Olympic pipelines that carry 13 million gallons of high-pressure jet fuel and gasoline through our neighborhoods every day.On Tuesday, PSE decided which route the Energize Eastside transmission line will take if the company’s construction permits are approved.  As expected, PSE chose the same route as the current lines, next to Olympic pipelines that carry 13 million gallons of high-pressure jet fuel and gasoline through our neighborhoods every day.

Although it has taken almost four years for the company to reach this decision, the process is not done yet.  Citizens have not had an opportunity to comment on the environmental impacts of PSE’s final route selection, including precise pole locations and trees to be removed. CENSE is requesting that citizens be given a fair chance to review these details and add their comments to the Environmental Impact Statement, which is scheduled for publication in early 2018.
In the meantime, CENSE will continue to demonstrate that there are better ways to provide reliable, safe, clean and cost-effective electricity for the Eastside.  For example, batteries offer multiple benefits:

• Reliability: Batteries provide better reliability in more scenarios than a transmission line.
• Safety:  Batteries are safer than a 230,000-volt transmission line running through densely populated neighborhoods in the same narrow corridor that contains two half-century old petroleum pipelines.
• Environment: Batteries can store electricity generated by wind and solar energy.  During peak demand, this clean electricity can be used instead of burning coal or natural gas and putting more carbon into our atmosphere.
• Cost: Batteries can be scaled to the size of the demand.  Since demand for electricity has been growing more slowly than the population or economy, a company like Tesla could install a small battery at least a year before the transmission line could be built.  Additional batteries could be added as necessary, saving customers tens of millions of dollars compared to an over-built transmission line.

PSE’s CEO foresaw the potential of batteries two years ago:

“[PSE is] working to integrate battery storage into our grid. We’ve seen from other utilities across the country that battery storage has great potential for balancing out intermittent renewable energy sources as well as meeting peak customer demand and providing backup power during outages.”

– Kimberly Harris, CEO of PSE  Cleantech Alliance interview, Feb. 2015

Join CENSE and help us convince Eastside city governments there are better ways to provide reliable electricity than Energize Eastside.