Rocky Mountain Power Inc. has applied to the Nevada Public Utilities Commission for a permit to build a segment of PacifiCorp’s 1,900-mile, $6-billion Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion Project. On May 21, PacifiCorp’s Salt Lake City-based division applied to build 77 miles of 500-kV transmission and ancillary facilities in Clark and Lincoln counties, Nev.

Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway, announced in 2007, is envisioned as a network that will branch to the west and southwest from Windstar substation near Casper, Wyo., with north-to-south links between the branches in Utah and a separate segment between Washington and Oregon. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2008 approved rate incentives for most of the proposed project.

That same month, PacifiCorp awarded a $600-million contract for engineering, procurement and construction of the first segment, 135 miles of double-circuit 345-kV line and a substation, to a joint venture of Black & Veatch Construction Inc., Henkels & McCoy Inc. and Kiewit Western Co. Construction of that line, the Populus to Terminal segment between Downey, Idaho, and Salt Lake City, began this year and is scheduled for completion by year’s end 2010.

The Nevada segment, the southern-most end of the 750-mile-long leg called Energy Gateway South, will run from near north Las Vegas toward Central, Utah. Gateway South’s northern end will be at the Aeolus substation near Medicine Bow, Wyo., but the Gateway South leg will be the last built, entering service in December 2017. The Nevada application is necessary now to meet the requirements of the state’s Utility Environmental Protection Act, says a PacifiCorp spokeswoman. Construction is scheduled to begin in February 2014.

Vendors are encouraged to monitor the project’s Website, http://www.pacificorp.com/energygateway, for schedules.