AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — As electricity demand continues to rise across Texas and New Mexico, Xcel Energy is proposing a slate of new power projects to keep the grid reliable.
The company’s proposed generation portfolio includes 11 projects in Texas and New Mexico, totaling nearly 4,000 megawatts of new generating capacity.
“This generation portfolio that we proposed is our response to that, so that we can meet those growing needs of our customers, so that we can meet the economic development growth that’s going on in our region and continue to provide the same great, reliable service we always have,” said Justin Smiley, Xcel Energy’s director of strategic planning.
Smiley said the projects are intended to meet growing demand from residents and businesses, but he clarified the portfolio is not designed to address data center demand.
“We’re looking at filing this large load tariff in the near future. And that is going to allow the data centers to come online, but also cover their full cost of service, meaning generation costs and transmission costs, through a new tariff that we’re going to introduce in Texas and New Mexico,” Smiley said.
Smiley said the company plans to use a mix of resources, including natural gas, solar and wind.
“These projects are spread out across our 52,000-square-mile service territory. We have some located in the Texas Panhandle, some near Plainview, and some in New Mexico. The idea is we spread that generation out. There are a couple of advantages to that. We don’t have to build transmission to move generation to different locations to serve the load,” Smiley said.
Smiley said Xcel Energy expects the projects to be in service by 2030.
Xcel Energy proposes 11 projects adding nearly 4,000 megawatts in Texas, New Mexico (KVII)