Xcel Energy-Colorado gets green light for $2 B transmission project
USA, Colorado: A transmission project that Xcel Energy-Colorado said will help make way for more renewable energy on the grid has received a green light.
Image source: The Denver Post
USA, Colorado: A transmission project that Xcel Energy-Colorado said will help make way for more renewable energy on the grid has received a green light.
Xcel Energy has issued a statement that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has approved plans for the five segments of the company’s Colorado’s Power Pathway, a project that will cost up to $2 B and will upgrade the state’s high-voltage transmission system.
“This project will help us continue on our path to reducing carbon emissions in Colorado more than 85 % by 2030, deliver low-cost, renewable energy, and improve the grid’s resilience and reliability,” said Robert Kenney, the new president of Xcel Energy-Colorado.
The pathway will consist of loops of up to 1.046 km (650 mi) of high-voltage transmission lines. Four new and four expanded substations are planned.
Most of Xcel Energy’s wind and solar energy facilities in Colorado are on the Eastern Plains. The company, Colorado’s largest electric utility, expects construction of the first segments of the transmission project to start in late 2023 and the entire line to be in service by 2027.
“The Colorado’s Power Pathway is really critical for reliable, clean energy in the state going forward. It increases the capacity to host new renewable resources in Colorado,” said Gwen Farnsworth, managing senior policy adviser for the environmental group Western Resource Advocates.
Farnsworth added that the project’s design of loops will improve the distribution system’s reliability and resiliency.
Source: The Denver Post
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