The Round Mountain 500 kV Area Dynamic Reactive Support Project, now known as the Fern Road Substation, was awarded to LS Power Grid California, LLC in 2020 through a competitive solicitation conducted by CAISO for its 2018-2019 Transmission Planning Process. This reliability driven project will provide critical reliability for the Northern California grid by eliminating chronic high voltage issues on PG&E’s system and addressing wide voltage variability resulting from increase solar generation in CAISO. The project is located in Shasta County, California with a planned in-service date of 2026.

The Project includes two ±265.4 MVAR static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) blocks and a new Fern Road Substation consisting of a 6-position 500 kV breaker-and-a-half switchyard with two 500/60.9 kV transformers. Fern Road Substation will loop in PG&E’s existing Round Mountain to Table Mountain 500 kV #1 and #2 lines. Fern Road Substation will be located approximately 11 miles south of PG&E’s Round Mountain 500 kV substation.

Construction of the Fern Road Substation is underway with testing and energization of the new project facilities planned for completion in 2026.