DGA Consulting, a subsidiary of a Pittsburgh-area company that opened a Tempe, Ariz., office in January, immediately booked a regional piece of business: a contract to handle the civil engineering work for a $350-million transmission project in northern New Mexico.
Plans for federally controlled power lines to transmit solar power are moving ahead in the Southwest, but in the Northwest, lines to move wind power are being slowed while wind developments there are being re-evaluated. Photo courtesy of AP WIDEWORLD / Jae C. Hong MIXED MARKET Solar Southwest is strong, but the windy Northwest is weak. The Western Area Power Administration announced it will hire construction firms to upgrade and build parts of a $91-million transmission- line project in southern Arizona.The 109-mile Electrical District 5-to-Palo Verde transmission project includes a mix of new and upgraded WAPA-owned 230-kV lines as well
Photo courtesy of Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District MRES plans to add powerplant on right side of Red Rock Reservoir spillway. Missouri River Energy Services plans to build a 36.4-MW hydroelectric plant on an existing dam near Pella, Iowa. The project is indicative of a slow but developing trend in the U.S.MRES, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based municipal utility power supplier, has hired MWH for engineering work on the $220-million project, Tom Heller, MRES chief executive officer, said on Sept. 16. MWH is an engineering consultant headquartered in Broomfield, Colo.MRES plans to build the Red Rock hydroelectric facility on
Plans for federally controlled power lines to transmit solar power are moving ahead in the Southwest, but in the Northwest, lines to move wind power are being slowed while wind developments there are being re-evaluated.Earlier this month, the Western Area Power Administration announced it will hire construction firms to upgrade and build parts of a $91-million transmission- line project in southern Arizona.The 109-mile Electrical District 5-to-Palo Verde transmission project includes a mix of new and upgraded WAPA-owned 230-kV lines as well as the acquisition of capacity on a 500-kV line that runs to the Palo Verde hub.The federal power marketer
In an effort to get a jump on pending environmental rules, Colorado regulators in late December approved plans to retire six coal-fired units at two utilities, switch two units from coal to natural gas and build two natural gas-fired powerplants. Photo: Xcel Energy Three units at Xcel Energy's coal-fired Cherokee power plant in Denver Driven by a state law, Minneapolis, Minn.-based Xcel Energy plans to spend about $1 billion by 2017 retiring 591 megawatts, switching 700 MW from coal to natural gas and building a 570-MW gas-fired plant. The utility will also add pollution control equipment at two powerplants. Xcel
American Transmission Co., Pewaukee, Wis., has proposed making $3.4 billion in Wisconsin-focused power-line upgrades—a portion of what could be a roughly $25-billion transmission build-out designed to deliver thousands of megawatts of renewable power from the Great Plains states across the Midwest. Map:Sue Pearsall For ENR Minnesota leads way in transmission line projects worth up to $26 billion. Source: American Transmission Co. The focus on expanded transmission capacity is driven by state renewable-energy requirements. A transmission assessment conducted in July by Houston-based Quanta Services estimated that 11 Midwest states would need roughly 47,000 MW of new wind generation to meet 80%
A 290-MW photovoltaic powerplant is on track for construction to start later this summer in Arizona, marking the beginning of a wave of utility-scale solar projects expected to wash over the Southwest. Photo: Courtesy First Solar Designed to provide 290 MW of power, this Yuma-area project is expected to be the first of many solar powerplants. The push to build solar plants like the Agua Caliente project near Yuma is driven by two key factors: state renewable-energy requirements and a drop in solar prices, especially for photovoltaic technology. Nine western states have renewable portfolio standards requiring utility electric sales to
