The Juan de Fuca Cable (JdF) project is a 550 MW HVDC Light (Voltage Source Converter) interconnection between Victoria, British Columbia, BC and Port Angeles, Washington. It is a joint venture (Sea Breeze Pacific Regional Transmission Systems, Inc. – SBPRTS) between Boundless and Sea Breeze Power Corp., a Canadian developer of renewable energy. The rationale for the project is multifaceted: to increase transmission capacity between Canada and the US so the vast amount of wind, biomass and run of river hydro potential in British Columbia can attain competitive markets (BC is a closed market operated by a government utility) and achieve economy of construction scale: to strengthen two radial grids (JdF provides controllable loop flow between Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island); to increase transmission capacity of two effectively islanded grids; to increase existing international intertie capacity by reducing reserve margins: and to defray or avoid more expensive upgrades needed for reliability to meet N-2 security criteria.
The JdF 30 mile long project is the first independent international transmission project in North America to have attained both a US Presidential Permit and a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity from the National Energy Board of Canada. Traversing critical endangered whale and salmon habitat, JdF completed both an EIS and its Canadian equivalent with no negative interveners and no added mitigation required.
As of mid-2008, JdF had completed all federal and state permitting as well as all interconnection studies in the US. Canadian and WECC region studies will be completed before the end of 2008, and contracts for service are being negotiated with customers prior to an expected early 2009 financing.