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Agreement on power project signed

A Santa Fe-based company aiming to construct an Eastern New Mexico facility to join the nation's three power grids has signed a 99-year lease to build the project on state trust land.

Commissioner of Public Lands Patrick Lyons signed the lease with Tres Amigas LLC. Project organizers hope that by 2014 the facility will allow electricity to move back and forth between the south-central United States, 14 western states, Alberta and British Columbia, and the northern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Currently, the flow of power is regulated by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Southwest Power Pool.

The lease will provide $9.44 million a year to the state trust beneficiaries once Tres Amigas is operating, according to the State Land Office. Tres Amigas signed an agreement with the State Land Office in 2009 to study the suitability of 14,000 acres of trust lands near Clovis for the project.

Lyons said the project will provide new transmission infrastructure needed for wind and solar energy. But it also will carry energy produced by conventional means such as from coal-fired power plants.

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