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Website · About · Legal · Privacy · Changelog · © 2026 Parisi Labs
  1. Home
  2. /Assets
  3. /Interties
  4. /Pacific DC Intertie
BPA logo

Pacific DC Intertie

BPA ↔ California · HVDC line (line-commutated)

An HVDC line from the Celilo converter at The Dalles, Oregon to Sylmar in Los Angeles, the longest direct link between the Northwest and Southern California.

Now
2,330 MWBPA → California
BPA · as of Sep 26, 12:00 AM PDT
Between
BPA and California
Technology
HVDC line (line-commutated)
Voltage
±500 kV DC
Length
846 miles
In service
1970
Owners
Bonneville Power Administration, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Open on the map

What it is carrying

Each operator's own reading, turned into a direction. Where both markets publish the tie, the two should agree.

As BPA reports it
2,330 MW · BPA → California

limit this way 3,210 MW · as of Sep 26, 12:00 AM PDT

Price across the seamReal-time · PDT
Reading prices…

Last 30 days

Hourly flow, signed so that up is power leaving the market.

As BPA reports it2,330MW
3,3971,411-575Aug 27, 11 AMSep 26, 12 AM

Above zero: BPA → California. Below: the reverse.

Hardware

Its terminals. US terminals are placed on the substation HIFLD's national dataset names for them.

Converter
Celilo converter, OR

45.5946, -121.1131 · 1000 kV

Converter
Sylmar converter, CA

34.3125, -118.4811 · 230 kV

Related interties

  • California–Oregon Intertie
    BPA ↔ California
  • Northern Intertie
    BPA ↔ British Columbia
  • Montana–Northwest
    BPA ↔ Montana
Published by
BPA
Usual direction
BPA → California in 98% of hours

98% out, 1% in, 2% idle across 710 hours

Average
1,635 MW · BPA → California
When busy
2,965 MW

95th percentile of hourly flow either way

Peak BPA → California
3,123 MW
Peak California → BPA
301 MW
Direction changes
4
The average day
0:006:0012:0018:0023:00
Mean flow by the market's local hour. Up: BPA → California. Down: California → BPA.