IID wins legal fight to increase energy production

More jobs might be coming to Imperial Valley thanks to a legal fight won recently by Imperial Irrigation District.

IID Affairs Officer Antonio Ortega said, “It lifts the restrictions and the limitations that had been placed on the IID for new generation or new development of projects in this service area.”

Ortega said those restrictions were placed by CAL-ISO (California Independent System Operator), an energy managing agency which controls over 80 percent of the state’s electric flow. He said these restrictions made growth difficult for developers who were looking to build solar, geothermal or small hydro projects, because IID was unable to go into other markets with increased energy production.

“If you don’t have that market then, it’s very difficult for investments to come into this region. This led the IID and its board of directors to take legal action,” Ortega said.

The settlement allows for export of energy which Ortega said opens the door for economic growth.

“There is now potentially additional capacity for some of these new projects to be built and now can have that power exported into the CAL-ISO’s grid,” Ortega said.

It draws more attention to the Salton Sea, as well.

“The Salton Sea resource area is the largest reservoir of geothermal power in the entire nation. Up to 1,700 megawatts of development can still occur at the Salton Sea,” Ortega said.

It also protects local customers’ electric rates.

“We felt they were trying to monopolize the grid and that could have had a major impact to the IID customers,” Ortega said.