NEW MEXICO – Xcel Energy completed construction of seventy miles of electrical transmission lines this year, mostly in southeast New Mexico, as part of a $3 billion expansion and decade-long power grid improvement project.

The project involves hundreds of miles of new and upgraded transmission lines, as well as expanding substations and upgrading transformers along lower-voltage distribution lines for rural area.

The effort is aimed at providing electricity to local communities and industrial sites in southeast New Mexico and West Texas, where growth in the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin brings demands for more electricity for energy production, reports Current Argus.

A 40-mile section of the 170 transmission line was completed this year, providing 345 kilovolts between Hobbs and Yoakum County, Texas.

Work is ongoing on another 345-kilovolt line between the TUCO Substation north of Abernathy, Texas and the Yoakum Substation near Plains, Texas. Once completed, it will provide power to southern Eddy and Lea counties in New Mexico, in the heart of the Permian Basin.

Source: Current Argus