The controversial Energize Eastside project designed to increase electric reliability to Bellevue has run into a snag in the midst of an open comment period.

In a 5-1 motion, the Newcastle City Council approved placing a six-month moratorium on any applications for transmission lines or radio towers within the city limits during its Feb. 16 meeting.

Newcastle Mayor Rich Crispo said the moratorium was a precaution while the city prepared for the project.

“We have tasked our Planning Commission to devise codes for transmission lines and utilities,” he said. “They had not completed that task and we wanted to have input before applications were filed.”

Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE) Energize Eastside project is planned to increase the electrical reliability of the Eastside and Bellevue specifically. According to the utility’s data, the estimated customer demand within Bellevue could lead to a strain on the system by as soon as 2018 and even into rolling blackouts in the early 2020s.

Crispo said Newcastle wasn’t making a judgment call on whether the proposed project was necessary, rather hoping to ensure that any work done was performed safely.

“We know that PSE is allowed to do [utility work], but that they are allowed to do it without consulting us is out of whack,” he said. “PSE has the right to do it, but we have the right to make sure what they do in our town is safe.”

PSE’s preferred alternative for Energize Eastside would include an 18-mile 230 kilovolt (kV) line, which would travel from the Sammamish power substation in Redmond through Bellevue and Newcastle before ending at the Talbot Hill substation in Renton.

Part of the Energize Eastside plan would change the existing Lakeside substation on Southeast 26th Street in the Richards Valley, adding a transformer (electrical equipment that transforms the voltage of power lines) to convert the 230 kV energy to 115 kV. The 115 kV lines then go out to neighborhood transformers, which then feed into homes and businesses.

Currently, 230 kV lines (which are the best method of transmitting high power over long distances) skirt the city of Bellevue, heading around Lake Sammamish. The huge amount of power Downtown Bellevue sucks up is unsustainable using the current lines based miles away, the utility company said.

As the lead agency in evaluating environmental impact, the city of Bellevue released an enviornmental impact statement (EIS) along with other Eastside cities, which analyzed the feasibility of proposed plans to power the Eastside. The current draft EIS looks over all proposed alternatives for Energize Eastside (which include doing nothing, ramping up conservation efforts, adding the 18-mile 230 kV line or adding 60 miles of 115 kV lines) and determines which plan meets the power reliability goals of Energize Eastside.

According to the draft EIS, only the 18-mile line meets all the goals of the project.

Jens Nedrud, an engineer and senior project manager for Energize Eastside, said the moratorium wouldn’t stop the project’s process.

“If they get the conditional use process done in six months, it won’t affect our schedule,” he said. “If that moratorium goes on, we would have some serious concerns.”

Energize Eastside is currently in an open comment period on the Phase 1 non-project level EIS. This period allows city leaders and citizens to look over Puget Sound Energy’s documents and provide comment on the EIS until March 14. From there, the comments will be collected and presented to the power company in an EIS comment summary.

The second potential hurdle Puget Sound Energy has had to face in recent days is a load flow study put together by two energy industry insiders working with the Coalition of Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy (CENSE).

The study claims that Puget Sound Energy is not using correct information when it does calculations and has subsequently done improper forecasts for power usage on the Eastside. Puget Sound’s models show problems by as early as 2018.

The Lauckhart-Schiffman demand forecast claims customer demand won’t approach current system capacity until 2058.

“The big revelation of the study was that there isn’t enough capacity in [transmission lines coming across the Cascades from Eastern Washington] to keep the voltage up in the Puget Sound area,” said Don Marsh, CENSE member. “We also are pretty sure they are using summer normal capacity ratings on their transformers when simulating a winter emergency scenario.”

In its simulations, PSE turned off most of the local generation plants that produce electricity in peak demand scenarios, CENSE claims. These two factors, among others, make CENSE members believe that Puget Sound is not using typical energy load numbers in good faith.

The authors of the study, Richard Lauckhart and Roger Schiffman, have decades of experience in the energy industry. Lauckhart worked for Puget Sound Power and Light (PSE’s predecessor) for 22 years before leaving in 1997.

The utility company outright dismissed the load study’s claims as failing to take several major factors into consideration.

“The very brief study shows they have not done load flow planning and power planning for many years,” Nedrud said. “They don’t even mention federally mandated standards, which became a lot more stringent in 2007.”

Gretchen Aliabadi, communication initiatives manager for Energize Eastside, said that last point was especially damning.

“It raises a huge red flag for us about the study,” she said. “We see concerns about more generation. That’s not the issue. There are more than enough electrons to power our customers. The problem we are facing is delivery.”

Eastside residents are encouraged to comment both electronically and in written form, especially at public meetings.

Several public hearings are scheduled for citizens to comment on the statement:

• 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, Newcastle Elementary School.

• 6-8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 29, Redmond City Hall.

• 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, Bellevue City Hall.