Pasadena Fast-Tracks $51 Million Power Grid Upgrade Before 2028 Olympics

Pasadena is accelerating a critical $51 million power infrastructure upgrade ahead of the 2028 Olympics, aiming to complete the replacement of major transmission lines that connect the east and west sides of the city by 2027 instead of the originally planned 2031 timeline.

The project focuses on upgrading “Path 2,” a critical transmission corridor that carries approximately 54% of the city’s power load from Southern California Edison’s connection point on the east side to the Glenarm Power Plant area on the west side.

The work includes replacing roughly 200,000 feet of cable, with cable costs alone estimated at $30 million.

A City Engineer involved in system planning told the Committee that PWP “found the need to accelerate this project in order to maintain our reliability.”

The urgency comes as Pasadena’s power system faces increasing stress from aging infrastructure. Equipment failures accounted for 56% of all customer power interruptions in the past year.

Despite these challenges, Pasadena maintains one of Southern California’s most reliable power systems, with 69% of its infrastructure underground – among the highest percentages for regional utilities.

Before cable replacement can begin, the city must complete extensive vault repairs and asbestos abatement. Inspections have revealed significant deterioration in underground vaults, including damaged concrete, exposed rebar, and water damage that could potentially harm the power lines.

The accelerated timeline presents two possible scenarios: Plan A concentrates $48 million in spending in fiscal year 2027, while Plan B spreads $24 million each across fiscal years 2027 and 2028. Both plans require $3 million in fiscal year 2025.

The original schedule had stretched spending through 2031, with annual allocations of $12 million from 2028-2031.

The project’s complexity requires Glenarm Power Plant generation during construction, which is limited to a 4 to 5 month window.

“These are such lines in the system, there’s a … risk if they were to fail, there would be a large portion of the city that would experience outages,” a City Principal Engineer explained.

System reliability data underscores Pasadena’s strong performance. In 2022, customers experienced an average outage duration of 44 minutes (SAIDI) and a frequency rate of 0.29 (SAIFI) – meaning only one in three customers experienced an outage that year.

“We received at the national level, we were among the top five most reliable utilities in the entire United States for reliability,” said David Reyes, the Acting General Manager of Pasadena Water and Power.

City officials promised to provide detailed information about which other capital improvement projects might be affected by the accelerated timeline before the proposal goes to the full City Council for approval.