It is one of the most ambitious renewable energy projects in the world but the Tres Amigas 'SuperStation', which would link the three main power grids in the United States, faces considerable financial and technological hurdles.

By Sam Phipps in Edinburgh

Tres Amigas, a superstation planned for New Mexico, would route energy from isolated wind and solar plants via superconductors and AC/DC converters that would balance power loads between the Eastern, Western and Texas grids.

The project, covering 22 sq miles at Clovis, near the Texas border – the point where the three grids come closest – could take up to five years to complete.

New Mexico governor Bill Richardson called it a “historic” step. “This is going to be the largest power converter in the world, making New Mexico the meeting place for America’s electricity needs,” he said when the plan was revealed in October.

The station will curb the effects of blackouts and brownouts (malfunctions) and could potentially earn US$4bn (€2.7bn, £2.4bn) a year, Richardson said – from the fees that utilities would pay to buy and sell electricity via the hub.

According to Phil Harris, chief executive of Santa Fe based Tres Amigas, the project would truly open up the market for electricity generated from renewable sources of energy, by letting regions with surplus solar or wind power, such as the Southeast or Midwest, sell energy to population centres on either coast.

“The system will also add a new dimension of reliability and security for US power supplies,” he said.

Construction could start in 2011, transmitting 5GW of energy two or three years after that, before later being upgraded to about 30GW capacity.

Although the rationale is to help ramp up renewable energy production across the United States, Tres Amigas could also transmit power from nuclear or coal-fired plants.

A political snarl

So what’s the problem? In May, no fewer than 10 eastern state governors, including those from New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, wrote to Congress criticising the whole concept of a national transmission superhighway.

“We must express our concern about the significant risks posed by recent proposals regarding transmission that we believe could jeopardise our states’ efforts to develop wind resources and inject federal jurisdiction into an area traditionally handled by states and regions,” they wrote in an open letter.

Instead, the governors want support for regional energy solutions because, they argue, extra transmission costs would undermine any advantage gained by in tapping into more abundant sun and wind from elsewhere. Thay say the eastern market would be “disadvantaged by upfront transmission subsidies” and possible electricity surpluses.

Either way, Harris says this has little to do with the Tres Amigas project, given that it is neither state-backed, nor likely to clash with any local energy solutions.

“Tres Amigas is privately funded – no stimulus funds or Government guarantees,” he told Wind Energy Update. “It will charge market based rates. If the economics are such that locally produced power is less costly, then the economics that serve the customer best should prevail. The wise choice is to keep all options open and avoid parochial self-serving tactics that provide the customers only a choice of monopoly rents from a small source of suppliers.

“The facts are that New Mexico alone has 27GW of solar and wind potential, according to the Western Governors’ association,” Harris said. “Add West Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona and Wyoming and the number exceeds 80GW. To really address climate change and a clean energy future these resources simply cannot go untapped. It would be like Texas saying: we will keep all our oil and gas in Texas.”

Tres Amigas will cost about US$600m (€402mn; £366mn) to build in its first phase, according to Russ Stidolph, the project’s chief financial officer. Private investors and strategic partners have provided development funding but long-term financing has yet to be confirmed.

American Superconductor, which bought a minority equity stake in Tres Amigas for $1.75m (€1.17mn; £1mn) plus AMSC stock, will supply the superconductor wire and cable system. 

Potential to drive down energy costs

The firm, based in Massachusetts, says it can transmit as much electricity through an underground cable system with a 25ft right of way as a 600ft wide right of way for a 765kv overhead transmission system with giant towers.

“Tres Amigas will entail five to 10 miles of superconductor cables to link the three grids, and overhead AC transmission lines stretching up to 100 miles,” said Jason Fredette of American Superconductor. “There hasn’t been any opposition that we’ve seen. Tres Amigas is a hub. It won’t carry power from A to B – it will enable power to be exchanged.”

New Mexico’s State Land Office has granted Tres Amigas, LLC the right to lease the Clovis site, and the company is now filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to exempt the transmission lines from FERC jurisdiction so that it can operate as a merchant transmission entity.

The US Department of Energy says America installed less than 27GW of wind, solar and geothermal power in 2008, accounting for less than 3 percent of the nation’s electricity supply. Yet the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) estimates that wind power alone could meet 20 percent of the nation’s needs by 2030, given appropriate policies and transmission assets.

Michael Goggin, manager of transmission policy at AWEA, says a national transmission superhighway need not clash with the policy of regional wind resources favoured by some. “There is no reason that these two goals should be mutually exclusive,” he said. “In fact, accessing wind from a diversity of regions yields a much more constant output of power.

“Consumers in the Northeastern US are currently paying nearly twice as much for electricity as consumers in other parts of the country, in large part because there isn’t enough transmission capacity for them to access lower cost resources like wind energy from other regions,” Goggin concluded.

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Sam Phipps: samcphipps@yahoo.co.uk

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