Pasadena Water and Power Presents 20-year Power Delivery Master Plan in Era Of Dramatic Change

In a virtual meeting, the Pasadena Department of Water and Power Department on Tuesday presented an ongoing draft of its 2022 Power Delivery Master Plan with an eye on new ways to produce and deliver power to the City’s residents.

“The way we produce and deliver power has changed so dramatically, even in just the last 20 years,” PWP Assistant General Manager of Power Delivery Marvin Moon said at the outset.

According to the presentation, the PWP’s 20-year outlook emphasizes five primary goals—reliability and safety, resiliency, power quality, modernization of the power grid, and Grid Edge, which would incorporate an “advanced metering infrastructure” and expand the City’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure. 

Among nearby cities, as well as Riverside, Anaheim and Los Angeles, Pasadena has been able to maintain a lower average number of system interruptions, very near their goal of less than 0.31 outages per year per customer. Nearby Glendale, for example, has experienced an average close to 1.3 per customer per year, between 2017 and 2021, according to Alshanti. 

Pasadena has also reduced its peak demands since 2010, from 310 Megawatts to 256 in 2021, and seen a dramatic increase in the number of electric cars in use, from perhaps dozens in 2010, to nearly 2,500 in 2020, and has greatly increased its number of charging stations. 

According to the presentation by Principal Electrical Engineer Burhan Alshanti, the PDMP is a “detailed strategic plan focused on addressing critical challenges, long-term strategies, and future guidance in order to maintain a safe, reliable and cost-effective power delivery system.” 

The PDMP will also serve as general direction for the department over its next 20 years, and be redeveloped every five years “to ensure renewed focus and analysis,” said Alshanti.

From Fiscal Year 2012 from Fiscal Year 2042, the PWP will spend an average of $33.7 million yearly on capital improvement projects, with a yearly average of $450.1 million from 2023 to 2028, and $38 million from 2029 to 2042, according to the presentation.

Among the major projects are line upgrades, installing current limiting equipment, advanced metering infrastructure,  phase shifting and mobile transformers, 4/17kV voltage conversion, equipment replacement, system automation, and electric vehicle charging stations.

The presentation pointed out that “one project can solve several goals at the same time.” 

Currently, PWP serves an area of 23 square miles with approximately 67,000 customers, 87% of whom are residential, while 13% are commercial.

While the City has aging substation units throughout its system, the goal would be to replace one every three years, and completely remove one every three years, as the city completes its voltage conversion project.

The PWP will present its master plan to both the Environmental Advisory Committee and then to the Municipal Services Committee on April 12. It will then present the plan and recommend adoption to the Municipal Services Committee on May 24, before presenting it to the full City Council on May 30.