GridLiance West, a NextEra Energy Transmission subsidiary, held a groundbreaking ceremony September 8 to mark the start of construction on its Core Upgrades project in southern Nevada. The roughly $1 billion effort will add about 1 GW of capacity to Nevada’s bulk electric grid through 155 miles of new and upgraded 230-kV and 500-kV transmission lines, along with new and rebuilt substations. The company is also advancing a separate, conceptual 413-mile line called High West that would link Nevada to Utah.
What it means
Core Upgrades originates near Boulder City, outside Las Vegas, where DesertLink — a 60-mile, 500-kV line running between Eldorado and Harry Allen substations in Clark County — ties into a new Sloan Canyon 500-kV substation. From there, the project runs to the Northwest substation, where GridLiance will add a second 230-kV connection that feeds into NV Energy’s Greenlink Nevada project. Existing single-circuit 230-kV lines along the corridor will be replaced with double-circuit or double-circuit-capable infrastructure. The project is scheduled to reach completion in mid-2028.
GridLiance is a participating transmission owner in CAISO. Most of Core Upgrades received approval in CAISO’s 2021/22 Transmission Plan; the 2022/23 plan subsequently upgraded portions of the project from 230 kV to 500 kV. The company said the project is not tied to any single customer or industry. Grid congestion in the Valley Electric Association service territory, driven by concentrated renewable generation, is the condition the upgrades are designed to address — GridLiance West acquired VEA’s 230-kV network in 2017 for about $200 million. The High West line, still at a conceptual stage, would run roughly 413 miles of 500-kV double-circuit-capable line from the Sloan Canyon substation near Las Vegas to the Clover substation near Mona, Utah — the southern terminus of PacifiCorp’s 416-mile Gateway South line. That route would cross about 147 miles of Nevada and 301 miles of federal Bureau of Land Management land; GridLiance has notified Nevada regulators it intends to seek a BLM right-of-way. High West would also involve upgrades to four existing substations and construction of one new substation.
Separately, TransCanyon LLC — a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s BHE U.S. Transmission and Pinnacle West Capital — has been developing Cross-Tie, a 218-mile, 500-kV line from the Clover substation in Utah to the Robinson Summit substation in northern Nevada, where NV Energy’s Greenlink North meets the One Nevada line. The Department of Energy announced in October 2023 that it would serve as an anchor off-taker for Cross-Tie, but TransCanyon subsequently notified DOE it was terminating the project capacity contract facilitation agreement as of November 4.
Key facts
- Core Upgrades cost: roughly $1 billion (according to the company)
- Capacity addition: approximately 1 GW to Nevada’s bulk electric grid
- Line breakdown: 59 miles at 500-kV, 96 miles at 230-kV, totaling 155 miles
- Groundbreaking: September 8; scheduled completion mid-2028
- High West: about 413 miles of 500-kV line, Nevada to Utah; described as conceptual
- High West route: 147 miles in Nevada, 301 miles on BLM land
- GridLiance West acquired VEA’s 230-kV network in 2017 for about $200 million
- Cross-Tie contract facilitation agreement terminated as of November 4
Source: RTO Insider, reporting GridLiance West and NextEra Energy Transmission announcements