SWEETWATER COUNTY — PacifiCorp gave a presentation to the Sweetwater County Commission Tuesday morning regarding the Gateway D2.2 Proposed Transmission Line Project.
Gateway D2.2 is an additive project to the Gateway West and Gateway South projects that is a result of increased transmission needs. During the presentation, Brian Taylor, PacifiCorp Pre-Construction Project Manager said the project will relieve operating limitations by providing congestion relief and alleviating voltage issues.
“These projects we’re going to talk about today are a big deal, they’re exciting for us,” Taylor said.
Taylor explained that the Gateway D2.2 project is a new 500 kilovolt AC transmission line approximately 143 miles from the Shirley Basin Substation, which is about 28 miles northwest of Medicine Bow, to the Anticline Substation, which is by the Jim Bridger power plant. Approximately 69 miles of the transmission line will be in Sweetwater County, with 33 miles on Bureau of Land Management land and 36 miles on private land.
The project will deliver up to 1,100 megawatts (MW) of additional wind energy, he said.
Route Selection
Taylor said the route selection process is always challenging, especially for a project like this one.
“A route selection for a project such as this is always going to be difficult no matter where you go or what you do. The process we’ve gone through to develop this route, we’ve gone through a bunch of different GIS layers and information from different agencies, different folks. We’ve analyzed over 100 different criteria, both environment, social, engineering, and topographical,” he said.
He said there are a lot of oil and gas lines and projects taking place, and this route significantly reduces conflicts with those.
“It does provide more consistent and reliable flow by not being next to some of the other projects we’ve talked about,” he added.
Chairman Keaton West expressed some concerns regarding wildlife and hunting along the proposed route in Sweetwater County.
“I don’t pretend to be an expert in this area but on the proposed route, and I know you alluded to some of your reasonings for going that route, but it just seems like it’s going through some pretty key areas for hunting and wildlife. Will that be a part of some of these studies you’re talking about that are still yet to come?” West asked.
Taylor said there will be an environmental impact study done that will take all of this into consideration. He said that with the sage grouse populations, along with endangered and threatened species, as well as elk and deer in the area, there will be restrictions with what PacifiCorp can do.
“There are other routes that we looked at that would have been much more difficult through the area, so we will try and place it… in the best place we can get it,” Taylor said.
Commissioner Island Richards asked what the workforce for this project will look like. Taylor said it will vary due to different circumstances, but that he believes the workforce will be “significant”.
“It will be a reasonably significant workforce but it will vary depending on the time of year. We anticipate having some construction constraints, wildlife constraints, weather constraints. We’re struggling right now with some of the other projects because of this winter and how it’s been working,” Taylor said.
Project design and engineering is currently taking place, and project construction is expected to begin in the latter half of 2026 with a completion date of December 2028.
