Seattle City Light has entered an agreement with EDF Trading North America, LLC to lease 72 megawatts of transmission capacity rights between the Pacific Northwest and California for the next five years. Seattle City Light has entered an agreement with EDF Trading North America, LLC to lease 72 megawatts of transmission capacity rights between the Pacific Northwest and California for the next five years, Superintendent Jorge Carrasco announced today.
Under the deal, City Light will assign to EDF Trading the right to use up to 72 MW of City Light’s transmission rights on the Pacific Northwest Intertie. City Light retains up to 88 megawatts of transmission rights for its own use.
“This agreement maximizes the value of City Light’s transmission rights,” Carrasco said. “The utility will increase its revenue by $1 million per year and still have the capacity we need for our own uses. That means less pressure on rates for our customers.”
The Pacific Northwest Intertie consists of transmission lines owned by the Bonneville Power Administration and others. It runs from the Washington-Oregon Border to the Oregon-California border. City Light holds a capacity ownership share that can be as much as 160 megawatts.
Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.
EDF Trading is a leader in the international wholesale energy markets. Its own portfolio of assets, combined with EDF Group businesses, give it the ability to source, supply, transport, store, blend and convert physical commodities across the wholesale energy markets. It is one of the largest providers of market services to the wholesale gas and power sectors in North America specializing in energy logistics and asset optimization. EDF Trading is a 100 percent owned subsidiary of EDF Group, Europe’s leading electricity producer.