This article comes from Xcel Energy’s Power for the Plains Progress newsletter.
New transmission lines are creating electric highways to help deliver new generation, including renewable energy on the grid. Xcel Energy is proposing two major wind projects in Texas and New Mexico.
The proposed Sagamore and Hale Wind Projects would also reduce carbon emissions substantially.
Pending approval, the anticipated in-service date for the 478-megawatt Hale Wind project in Hale County, Texas is in 2019 and the 522-megawatt Sagamore Wind Project in Roosevelt County, N.M. is expected to be completed in 2020.
“The new transmission lines we are building are strengthening the grid and providing options for now and in the future,” Hudson said. “The lines improve local reliability, while also adding capacity for new generation to enter the grid, including wind and solar. Transmission is a needed link for the tax revenue, royalty payments and new jobs created by adding wind power to the system.”
The proposed Sagamore and Hale Wind Projects would also reduce carbon emissions substantially. By 2021, carbon emissions would be reduced nearly 50 percent (from 2005 levels) in the company’s Texas and New Mexico generation fleet. Xcel Energy is also seeking approval of a contract to purchase an additional 230 megawatts of wind energy from two facilities being developed in Texas by NextEra Energy Resources – one in Cochran County and the other in Crosby County.
Tell Us What You Think!