Project overview
The Golden Pacific Powerlink is a proposed 500 kV extra-high-voltage transmission line from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), a regulated investor-owned utility whose service territory is San Diego and Orange counties — not Riverside County. Its parent company is Sempra Energy.
SDG&E says the line is needed to meet CAISO's 2022–2023 transmission planning requirements, moving power from southwestern generation areas to Southern California population centers, with a target commercial operation date of June 1, 2032. EHV lines like this typically carry 1,000–2,000 megawatts.
The core grievance: the corridor would route 500 kV towers through Temecula while delivering no direct benefit to the Riverside County residents who'd live beneath them.
The Temecula segment
The preliminary corridor runs from a proposed new substation north of SONGS eastward through Temecula, across the county line toward Palomar Mountain, and down to the existing Imperial Valley Substation. The contested portion follows the Temecula Creek corridor — land zoned Open Space Conservation — passing near Vail Ranch Middle School, the Santa Margarita River, and Pechanga.
- Voltage
- 500 kV extra-high-voltage
- Within city limits
- ~5 miles, I-15 to Anza Rd
- Towers
- 21 steel lattice towers
- Tower height
- 180–200 ft (may exceed 200 ft)
- Tower spacing
- 900–1,200 ft apart
- Right-of-way
- ~250 ft path (200 ft RoW + ~50 ft base)
- Corridor sought
- Reportedly up to 1,000 ft wide
- Land
- Temecula Creek — Open Space Conservation
How it gets approved
Transmission lines above 50 kV are approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) — five commissioners appointed by the Governor. SDG&E's own materials lay out a five-step process, and Temecula was only notified at step 4, after the project had already been planned and approved:
- 1California Energy Commission (CEC) — forecasts statewide energy demand.
- 2CPUC — sets generation/storage planning via the Integrated Resource Plan.
- 3CAISO — decides where lines go and picks the solution in its Transmission Plan.
- 4SDG&E — early engineering, environmental studies, community outreach. (← Temecula first notified here.)
- 5CPUC + state/federal agencies — review under CEQA/NEPA, approve, and grant rights-of-way.
Local government can't veto the project — but its input, and yours, becomes part of the official record the CPUC must consider. See how to take action →
Claimed impacts & concerns
Several figures below come from community advocacy flyers. We label these as community-sourced and are verifying them against primary sources before treating them as established fact.
Construction footprint
21 towers ≈ 84 concrete footings (each ~5 ft wide × 50 ft deep). Estimated ~225 concrete trucks plus thousands of trucks for access-road gravel along the creek.
Property values
Community estimates: up to 40% decrease within the viewshed, up to 20% within 1,000 ft, up to 5% in surroundings.
Wildfire & safety
Concern that high-voltage lines in a high-wind corridor raise wildfire risk and complicate firefighting.
Health & EMF
Magnetic-field concerns near the line; field strength drops sharply with distance. Health claims are flagged for verification.
School setback
California Dept. of Education guidance calls for a 350 ft setback for 500–550 kV lines. A community analysis maps part of Vail Ranch Middle School inside that zone.
Scenic & quality of life
Towers as tall as a 20-story building over Temecula Creek, plus noise concerns and habitat disruption to the creek and Santa Margarita River.
Several of these deserve a closer, sourced look — explore the issues in depth →
Precedent: the Sunrise Powerlink
In 2008, SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink faced fierce opposition over a similar path through Anza-Borrego. The CPUC rejected that route as “environmentally unacceptable and infeasible,” citing more than 50 significant, unavoidable impacts to the park. SDG&E argues today's route can co-locate with a 1930s-era 69 kV line on 50-ft wooden poles — but opponents note weathered wooden poles are not comparable to 200-ft steel lattice towers in a 200-ft right-of-way.
Source: Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2026
See how this unfolded — and where it's headed.