Scaled-down electrical grid project detailed

Tres Amigas back with $200M plan for eastern NM trust land

A company that once planned a $1.5 billion effort in New Mexico to link three major U.S. electricity grid systems and pump more renewable energy to more populated markets said Wednesday that it has scaled down the plan to one that would cost about $200 million.

The Tres Amigas electrical infrastructure development company provided details about its plan a day after New Mexico’s State Land Office suggested that the project was dead with the relinquishment of a long-term lease covering thousands of acres of state trust land in eastern New Mexico where the company’s high-voltage transmission hub was supposed to be built.

Russell Stidolph, the company’s chief financial officer, said advances in technology and changes in the project’s business model have reduced the amount of money and land required for the project and that Tres Amigas has identified a significantly smaller parcel as a backup site.

The company’s focus, he said, remains a project to connect independently operated electrical grids and move renewable energy generated in the rural reaches of eastern New Mexico to western U.S. population centers, including California.

“Tres Amigas is not abandoning our project,” he said.

Stidolph made the comments after New Mexico state Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn said in a statement that he appreciated “Tres Amigas’ efforts to help the country achieve its aggressive renewable energy goals, but they failed to meet certain benchmarks and abandoned their plan.”

The Rio Rancho-based company and the State Land Office both indicated they are open to negotiating a new lease.

Land office spokeswoman Kristin Haase said Tres Amigas would have to go through a bid process again if it remains interested in another longterm lease. The company has not yet made a formal request, she said.