Xcel wants to spend $500 M on a new power line
USA, Minesota: Xcel Energy has kicked off plans to build a roughly $500 million, 225-km power line in Minnesota.
Image source: Star Tribune
USA, Minesota: Xcel Energy has kicked off plans to build a roughly $500 million, 225-km power line in Minnesota.
This will be one of the state’s largest transmission projects in recent years.
The power line, which Xcel has dubbed the “Minnesota Energy Connection,” would host several new wind and solar farms as it runs from Becker in the north to Lyon County in the south.
“The purpose of this line is to unlock renewable energy from a very renewable rich jurisdiction — wind and solar both,” said Michael Lamb, Xcel’s senior vice president for transmission.
Minneapolis-based Xcel, Minnesota’s largest electricity producer, proposed the power line about a year ago. Later this year, Xcel expects to start filing for state permits needed to build the line. Xcel ratepayers would eventually pay for it in their monthly bills.
If the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approves the project, Lamb estimates it would be completed by 2027 to 2028. The regulatory, engineering and construction process for a large new power line is a long one.
The power line would use Xcel’s current grid interconnections at its massive Sherco power complex in Becker. Sherco’s three coal-fired generators are slated to be shut down between 2023 and 2030.
Source: Star Tribune