Southern California Edison's
Valley South 115 kV Substation Project

Welcome to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) website for the environmental review and monitoring of Southern California Edison's (SCE's) Valley South 115 kV Subtransmission Project (Valley South). This website provides information on the status of the CPUC's review of the project.

SCE submitted Application A.14-12-013 for a Permit to Construct Electrical Facilities with Voltages between 50 kV and 200 kV to the CPUC on December 15, 2014. Concurrently, SCE also filed its Proponent's Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the project on this date. Based on a review of the application materials and responses to data requests, the CPUC determined that the application was complete in April 2015, which began the environmental review process under CEQA for Valley South. The CPUC approved the project in Decision 16-12-001 on December 6, 2016. An overview of the approved Project, construction and monitoring status, and previous review under the California Environmental Quality Act is provided below.

Proposed Project

The Valley South project is located in southwestern Riverside County. The documents provided on this website include more detail regarding the location and key components of the project. A summary of the project is provided below:

• Modification of SCE's existing 500/115 kV Valley Substation would include equipping an existing 115 kV line position and providing protection equipment as required.
  
  
• Construction of a new 115 kV subtransmission line originating at SCE's existing Valley 500/115 kV Substation and terminating at a Tubular Steel Pole (TSP) located at the southeast corner of Leon Road and Benton Road. The TSP is the common point of the three-terminal existing Valley-Auld-Triton 115 kV Subtransmission Line. The new construction and associated reconfiguration would result in the formation of the Valley-Auld No. 2 and Valley-Triton 115 kV Subtransmission Lines. The new 115 kV subtransmission line would be approximately 12 miles in length and is referred to as Segment 1 of the Proposed Project. The majority of the new line would be within existing rights-of-way (ROW), SCE fee-owned ROW (at Valley Substation), and franchise ROW (i.e., roads, streets, sidewalks).
  
  
• Replacement of a segment of overhead conductor of the existing Valley-Auld-Triton 115 kV Subtransmission Line beginning at the TSP located at the southeast corner of Benton Road and Leon Road continuing south to the Terminal TSP located on the south side of Nicolas Road, approximately 250 feet west of Los Chorus Ranch Road in the City of Temecula. This reconductor segment is approximately 3.4 miles in length and is referred to as Segment 2 of the Proposed Project.
  
  
• Relocation of existing distribution and telecommunication lines from old poles to new poles to support installation of Segments 1 and 2 of the new 115 kV subtransmission line.
  
  
• Installation of telecommunication equipment at Triton and Valley Substations to connect the Proposed Project to SCE’s existing telecommunication system.

Construction Status and Mitigation Monitoring

Notices to Proceed (NTPs) were reviewed and issued by CPUC by subsection of the project as requested by SCE. Issuance of NTPs was contingent upon SCE's compliance with pre-construction requirements as specified by the approved mitigation measures and responsible agency permitting requirements. Table 1 below summarizes the NTPs issued by CPUC.

Approved plans are available here.

Limited construction activities on the Valley South Subtransmission Project began in February 2019 with the establishment of yards and some vegetation clearing, and subtransmission construction began in May 2019. Construction continued through 2019 and 2020, and the project was energized in December 2020. Restoration activities will continue in accordance with the Habitat Restoration and Monitoring Plan. A Final Report documenting construction and compliance activities is available here.

CPUC Environmental Monitors monitored construction activities to verify that the proper implementation of project mitigation measures and permit and compliance plan requirements occurred during construction. Monitoring reports documenting construction and compliance activities are available here.

As final engineering was completed or as construction necessitated, Minor Project Changes (MPCs) were submitted for the Project. Each of these requests was reviewed by CPUC to ensure that no new impacts or increase in impact severity would result from the requested change. MPCs approved for the project are summarized below.

Final Environmental Impact Report

The CPUC released the Final Environmental Impact Report (Final EIR) for the Valley South Project on June 13, 2016 (Notice of Availability of the Final EIR). The Final EIR has been updated as a result of comments received on the Draft EIR. Appendix 5 (70.4MB) of the Final EIR includes responses to all comments received on the Draft EIR during the public review period. Copies of the Final EIR are available for review at the following repository locations:

After release of the Final EIR, Blum Collins LLC submitted a letter on behalf of the Socal Environmental Justice Alliance. A memorandum was prepared to address the comments made in the Blum Collins letter (Supplementary Appendix to Final EIR).

Draft Environmental Impact Report

The CPUC released the Draft Environmental Impact Report (Draft EIR) for Valley South on January 29, 2016 for a 46-day public review period, which ended on March 14, 2016 (Notice of Availability of the Draft EIR).

Hardcopies of the Draft EIR were made available for public review at the repository sites identified above.

Draft EIR Public Meeting

The CPUC held a public meeting on Monday, February 22, 2016 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Residence Inn Marriott (25407 Madison Avenue, Murrieta, CA). The public meeting provided an opportunity to learn about the Project, ask questions about the content of the Draft EIR, and provide written comments.

Other Project-related Documents (SCE Application and PEA)

This website provides access to public documents and information relevant to the CEQA review of the Valley South Project.

Application

Application of Southern California Edison Company (U-338-E) for a Permit to Construct Electrical Facilities with Voltages Between 50 kV and 200 kV: Valley South 115 kV Subtransmission Project

Proponent's Environmental Assessment

Volume 1 of 4 (30.1MB)
Volume 2 of 4 (57.7MB)
Volume 3 of 4 (31.4MB)
Volume 4 of 4:
PART 1 (39.9MB)
PART 2 (51.8MB)  
PART 3 (44.2MB)
PART 4 (42.0MB)
PART 5 (27.2MB)