Southwest Minnesota Transmission Project: Buffalo Ridge to White

This project is needed to support the development of additional wind power and to strengthen electric service reliability in the region. The project involves construction of a new 28-mile 115-kilovolt line from the Buffalo Ridge Substation, located in Minnesota southeast of Lake Benton in Lincoln County, to White Substation, south of Brookings in South Dakota. Approximately 6 miles of the line will be located in South Dakota.

Status

On March 17, 2005, Xcel Energy received a route permit from the MEQB for the Minnesota portion of the Buffalo Ridge to White Project. A copy of the Route Permit can be found at http://www.eqb.state.mn.us/Docket.html?Id=7768. Xcel Energy plans to file for a route permit from South Dakota in August 2005.

Since we are interconnecting at the White Substation with Western Area Power Administration (Western) they need to review the project and develop an Environmental Assessment (EA) prior to their approval of the interconnection. They have held meetings on this project and are currently developing the EA

Documents

Fact sheets and other documents are available below, coded according to when they were filed or released. More documents and information can be found on the MEQB web site.