PGE's Wilsonville substation is pictured here. (Photo by Krista Kroiss)

Wilsonville’s rules requiring the undergrounding of utilities are hamstringing Portland General Electric’s efforts to upgrade transmission lines in the city.

As part of a larger project aiming to bolster the power grid, the electricity company is working to add a new transmission line between a substation along Southwest Day Road and an existing transmission corridor between the Wilsonville and Sherwood substations. Improvements will be made to an existing transmission line as well, along with upgrades to power poles on Southwest Grahams Ferry Road.

In past interviews, PGE spokesperson Andrea Platt has said the project, called the Tonquin Project, will modernize the power grid and create redundancy to accommodate future growth and reduce power outages. Redundancy allows for power to travel along alternative routes, which Platt previously compared to vehicles being able to use different roads if one is blocked.

When PGE applied for a city permit to locate “new high voltage transmission lines and transmission poles” along the road, Wilsonville government staff responded that city code requires utilities to be buried underground and only makes an exception for adding a new transmission line to existing poles, said City Attorney Amanda Guile-Hinman at a recent City Council meeting. While PGE would be allowed to add a new transmission line to existing poles, she said this code prevents it from adding new poles.

PGE believes a different section of the city’s code makes an exemption for high-voltage powerlines, which would allow for the new poles.

“The crux of the disagreement can be resolved with a literal reading of City of Wilsonville code, which explicitly states that power lines exceeding 50 kilovolts are exempt from the undergrounding requirement,” PGE spokesperson Andrea Platt said in an email. “Because resolving this dispute may further delay a project that is essential to serve the city’s growth in population and need for electricity, we are exploring options to expedite resolution.”

During the meeting, Guile-Hinman said PGE is referencing a section of the code that only applies to new developments.

“Nothing in those (code) provisions allow PGE to install new transmission poles in the city’s right of way,” Guile-Hinman said during the meeting.

The Wilsonville City Council unanimously agreed with and adopted city staff’s interpretation of the code during the March 17 meeting, when Guile-Hinman asked the council for its opinion on the code.

Guile-Hinman clarified in an email after the meeting that the city code would allow for PGE to replace existing poles with new ones, but prohibit the company from installing new poles where they did not previously exist. In a separate email in February Platt said a portion of the project along Southwest Grahams Ferry Road includes the “replacement of existing poles with new transmission structures,” but PGE declined to comment on follow up questions to confirm if the plans include new power poles along the road.

When the Wilsonville Spokesman asked PGE if it intends to comply with the undergrounding requirements or challenge the city’s interpretation of the code — and if the undergrounding requirements will affect other portions of the project — Platt said in an email that “PGE welcomes a productive dialogue with the city to resolve the permit approval needed in order for PGE to serve the residents and businesses of Wilsonville and surrounding area.”

Background

PGE’s efforts to upgrade transmission lines and power poles are part of the Sherwood-Wilsonville leg of its Tonquin Project, which involves the construction of a new substation in the southern portion of PGE’s service area and upgrading 11 total miles of transmission lines across Wilsonville, Tualatin, Sherwood, the Stafford area and unincorporated Clackamas County.

In addition to the power poles on Southwest Grahams Ferry Road, Platt said in an email in February that the Sherwood-Wilsonville leg involves upgrading poles along Southwest Boones Ferry Road. A new I-5 crossing will be built to connect the existing line with the new Memorial Substation, which is located up the street from another Wilsonville substation along Southwest Parkway Avenue.

Further, PGE plans to upgrade transmission lines and power poles between the Wilsonville substation at the intersection of Boeckman Road and Southwest Parkway Avenue and a substation near Lake Oswego in the Rosemont-Wilsonville leg of the project. This includes upgrades to power poles along Southwest Stafford Road — something Stafford residents have long opposed.

PGE has also faced legal difficulties with the Rosemont-Wilsonville portion of the project.