News Releases

PSCo/Xcel Energy seeks approval for interconnecting transmission line

DENVER - Public Service Co. of Colorado (Xcel Energy) filed Tuesday with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission seeking its approval of a high voltage transmission line that, when complete, will connect the electric transmission system of Public Service Co. with electric utility systems in the Eastern Interconnection, the electric grid that borders Colorado to the east. The 345-kilovolt line will increase the reliability of the Colorado power supply, according to Fred Stoffel, vice president of policy development for Xcel Energy.

"The new line will establish an important interconnection and transmission path that can increase the amount of electric generation capacity that can be imported into Colorado," said Stoffel. "The project will allow Public Service Company to access the generating capacity of its affiliate, Southwestern Public Service Company, as well as other competitive power suppliers to help create a robust wholesale electricity market in the region." 

Stoffel said that the electric transmission system in Colorado is constrained. "The project will provide on-going economic opportunities to move power between the different interconnections of the electricity grid and help to keep electricity costs low for customers," he added.

The filing yesterday seeks the Commission’s approval, by grant of a certificate of public convenience and necessity, for the 27.5-mile section of line from Lamar, Colorado to the Colorado-Kansas state line, and for the construction of a “high voltage, direct current” conversion facility near Lamar. The proposed transmission line will continue into Kansas and will terminate in Holcomb, Kansas. The conversion facility is necessary to connect two separate electrical grids. The estimated cost of the Colorado portion of the project is $65.7 million.

Construction, presuming Commission approval, is scheduled to begin in October 2003 and construction would be completed in 2004. Prowers County, Colorado has approved the company’s siting of facilities from Lamar to the Colorado-Kansas state line and the Kansas Corporation Commission has approved construction of the transmission line facilities in Kansas.