Pacific Power plans to build a new 500-kilovolt line across portions of Deschutes and Crook counties to improve service to customers in Southern Oregon.

The project plans were introduced to the Deschutes County Commission on Monday.

According to project plans published by Pacific Power, the lines will run for around 180 miles across Central Oregon on steel lattice-style towers standing 160 to 180 feet tall.

The structures require a 250-foot-wide right of way, meaning no structure can be within 125 feet from the center line. The distance between each tower will be 800 to 1,400 feet.

Burying the transmission lines isn’t practical, the utility said. Cost is one hurdle. Burying transmission lines is 10 times more expensive than installing an above-ground line, said Simon Gutierrez, a spokesperson for Pacific Power.

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Project manager John Aniello told the County Commission that Pacific Power customers would pay for the costs in the form of higher rates.

“We have a responsibility to keep the rates as low as possible,” Aniello said. “Going underground would impact rates.”

Aniello adds that it’s easier for Pacific Power to conduct repairs on above-ground transmission lines compared to underground ones because below ground maintenance work needs to be outsourced to East Coast-based companies.

Environmentally, Pacific Power said underground transmission lines have downsides. Vaults carrying transmission lines need to be large enough for a person to enter, and building them is described as intrusive and invasive.

“The environmental impacts from undergrounding the line include but are not limited to, complete deforestation of the entire right-of-way width,” said Gutierrez. “In addition, there would be large-scale excavation the entire length of the line.”

Aniello also panned an underground transmission line but did not throw it out entirely.

“There a bunch of reasons we don’t do it,” said Aniello. “I don’t ever want to say it can’t be done but it’s just not the right thing to do.”

Deschutes County Commissioner Tony DeBone said the process is in the early stages, and he encourages others later in the process to ask questions about above ground vs. below ground opportunities.

“It was just for information today,” said DeBone. “It’s part of the conversation.”

Gutierrez said reducing environmental impacts can be accomplished above ground by building the transmission lines along existing power lines and roads “as much as possible.”

Aniello said “archaeologically tribal areas” could be the most challenging aspects of the project to navigate.

“Down in the Chiloquin area, there are archaeological significant land to the tribes, so when you know that from a tabletop study you do everything you can to avoid it from the get-go,” said Aniello.

Pacific Power’s timeline includes a routing study this year followed by permitting between 2025 and 2028. Then land acquisition in 2028 and 2029 followed by construction in 2029 to 2031. The transmission line is planned to be operational by 2032.