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Xcel Energy's Hobbs power plants celebrate 40- and 50-year anniversaries

HOBBS, N.M. - Southeastern New Mexico was booming in the late 1950s when Xcel Energy’s Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS) built what was then the state’s largest power plant west of town – Cunningham Generating Station.
A decade later, the New Mexico Electric Service Company, which was later brought into the SPS fold, built the Maddox Generating Station just three miles east of Cunningham.
Employees and retirees of both companies will celebrate the 50-year and 40-year anniversaries of each facility on Thursday, Feb. 28 with a luncheon and reception at Cunningham Station. The event is planned not only as a reunion and a time to reflect on the past, but also as a time to contemplate a future that will continue to be influenced by the two power plants.
Cunningham was touted as a product of an in-house design group at SPS when it was dedicated in 1957. The new plant was named for J.E. Cunningham, who was at the time a 30-year veteran of SPS and president of the company.
Cunningham’s namesake began life as a one-unit, 71-megawatt plant. The second, 196-megawatt unit was added in 1965. The original units are steam turbine generators fueled by natural gas. Two additional gas combustion turbine units of 110 megawatts each were added in 1997, giving the plant a total capacity of 487 megawatts.
Like several other generating stations powering the SPS system, Cunningham Station is a zero discharge plant – no process waters are discharged from the plant site. Cooling water from Cunningham is reused to irrigate nearby pecan tree orchards.
Only a decade after Cunningham Unit 1 and just three miles away, the New Mexico Electric Service Company dedicated the new Maddox Generating Station. The station was named for J.F. Maddox, the founder, chairman, president and general manager of the company and longtime community leader in Hobbs.

Maddox Station's gas fueled, steam-driven 118-megawatt Unit 1 began operating in 1967, followed by the 65-megawatt Unit 2, a gas combustion turbine, in 1975. The smallest of Maddox’s three units, a gas combustion turbine in Unit 3, was brought out of retirement in 1991 from Roswell and moved to Maddox to provide 10 megawatts of standby power.
Cunningham and Maddox were combined into one complex in 1998, but each plant still has its own control room.
Jeff Bryant, who has served as plant director over the Cunningham/Maddox complex since 2001, said the area’s industrial giants – ranging from potash mines to the new Louisiana Energy Services uranium enrichment plant – depend on the Hobbs plants for their energy, just as Xcel Energy depends on these industries for steady customer loads.
But there’s nothing steadier than the 56 employees who keep the power flowing at Cunningham and Maddox, he said.
“This is a very stable and experienced group of employees,” Bryant said. “The average age is 45 years old and the typical employee has 15 years of service or more.”
A stable workforce and a long-established tradition of excellence in power generation are prime reasons why a new power plant is emerging in the shadows of Cunningham and Maddox  – the 550-megawatt Hobbs Generating Station that will come online in June 2008. Owned by Lea Power Partners, the new station will deliver its output into the SPS grid through a 20-year purchased power agreement.
Bryant points out, however, that the addition of a younger, more efficient power station won’t diminish Cunningham and Maddox. Just as in the 1950s, Hobbs and the surrounding areas are booming again, delaying any early retirement plans for the two power plants.
Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states. Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis. More information is available at www.xcelenergy.com.