Path 61 or the Lugo - Victorville 500 kV Line is a relatively short AC 500 kV

power line An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy across large distances. It consists of one or more uninsulated electrical cables (commonly multiples of three for three-p ...

that runs from

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of ap ...

's (SCE) Lugo substation southwest of Hesperia to

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021-2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day to more ...

's (LADW&P) Victorville substation north of

Victorville, California Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. History In 1858, Aaron G. Lane came to what is now known as Victorville and founded a waystation called "Lane's Cr ...

. Path 61 is part of the

Western Electricity Coordinating Council The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) promotes Bulk Electric System (BES) reliability for the entire Western Interconnection system. WECC is the Regional Entity responsible for compliance monitoring and enforcement. In addition, W ...

's links of electrical intertie paths in the western United States.This line is an important connection between two out of the four parts that make up the massive

Path 46 Path 46, also called West of Colorado River, Arizona-California West-of-the-River Path (WOR), is a set of fourteen high voltage (500 kV & 230 kV) alternating-current transmission lines that are located in southeast California and Nevada up to ...

transmission system in southeast California since the line allows power flow to be rerouted on Path 46 when necessary. Half of the length of the 500 kV power line is owned by SCE to the south and LADW&P to the north. The entire line is located in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily i ...

and the High Desert regions of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

.Route descriptions and tower designs are based on Google Earth images.

Route

Starting from the SCE Lugo substation, where many other Southern California Edison power transmission lines interconnect, the Path 61 500 kV power line heads north-northeast along with other lower voltage 220 kV and 230 kV power lines for a short distance before turning northwest, traveling though the southwestern portion of Hesperia and spanning over

Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexican border in San Diego County and stretches north to Alberta, Cana ...

about 2 miles north of the interchange with Main Street. North of Bear Valley Road, the line turns and travels northeast along with the Hoover Dam-Victorville-Century 287 kV transmission lines until they terminates at the LADWP Victorville substation. Like at the Lugo substation, many other LADWP 500 kV lines, which are also part of Path 46, interconnect at the Victorville substation. Victorville is also near the Adelanto Converter Station where the Intermountain DC link comes in from Utah.

Power transmission capacity

Path 61 can transmit 2,400 MW of

electrical power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions ...

from Victorville substation to Lugo substation. In reverse (Lugo to Victorville), the power line could only transmit 900 MW.

References

{{coord missing, California Western Interconnection Energy infrastructure in California