Tres Amigas SuperStation


The Tres Amigas SuperStation is a planned project to unite North America’s two major power grids and one minor grid, with the goal to enable faster adoption of renewable energy and increase the reliability of the U.S. grid. The project will use superconducting wires from Massachusetts-based American Superconductor Corp for electrical distribution and to interconvert alternating current and direct current power.
Proposed by Tres Amigas, LLC in 2009, the project is in the process of finalizing funding. Permits and construction contracts are in place. CEO Phillip G. Harris is the former CEO of PJM Interconnection, an East Coast regional transmission organization.

Overview

The Tres Amigas SuperStation project proposes to tie the East Coast, West Coast and Texas grids together via three 5 GW superconductive high-voltage direct current power transmission lines, which permit a controlled flow of energy while also functionally isolating the independent AC frequencies of each side. Isolation is important because while all three grids have a nominal frequency of 60 Hz, their true frequencies at any given time can fluctuate by a significant margin, rendering the synchronization of the grids essentially impossible and leaving them out-of-phase from one another. With DC-links, however, the design can be scaled to 30 GW. Tres Amigas would use high-temperature superconductor wire supplied by American Superconductor Corp.
The Tres Amigas SuperStation plans to act as a power market hub, enabling the buying and selling of electricity among three of North America's largest interconnections above the amount available today. The Texas Interconnection has 5 DC ties to the other grids, totaling 1,100 MW.
The project will provide solar, wind and other renewable developers with the transmission infrastructure needed to transport clean electricity to population centers.

Location

The Tres Amigas super station will be located on a state plot of land near Clovis, New Mexico, leased for 99 years at $9 million per year.

Cost

Early estimates of the cost put the project budget at around $1 billion, and later at $2 billion.

Project schedule and status

Proposed in 2009. In 2011, Tres Amigas SuperStation awarded Alstom Grid a €150m contract for a 750MW, 345kV DC converter scheme
for a VSC connecting PNM and Xcel Energy in 2014.
Construction was planned to begin in Summer 2012.
President Ben Shelly of the Navajo Nation has expressed interest in investing $12 million in the project.
In 2010, Scandia Wind Southwest LLC proposed to build an initial 2,250 megawatts of wind power in the Texas Panhandle, with a potential capacity of 10,000 MW. Tres Amigas could distribute this power, but it met some opposition.
Phase 1, the connection of East Coast and West Coast grids, could cost $400 million, and all 3 phases could then cost $1.2 billion.
In 2013, two key announcements confirmed the ongoing progress of the project, and an expected commercial load date of 2016.
The company will move its headquarters to downtown Albuquerque, in the former Petroleum Club building.
In 2015, the Southwest Power Pool cancelled an agreement with the project.
In February 2017, it was announced that the project was still progressing but would be significantly scaled back from the previous full project estimate of $1.5 billion to $200 million. The project is also subject to possible relocation due to reduced land needs.