Opposition to Tres Amigas Superstation? CEO Blows It Off

Opposition to the ambitious Tres Amigas SuperStation is inevitable, but so is the need to develop a way to bring renewable energy to the Smart Grid. As we've said before, China and Europe are getting ahead of the U.S. on high-voltage interconnections and we need to make progress.

The Tres Amigas SuperStation, the first attempt to link America's three power grids and open up the market for renewable energy, is catching flak from opponents who say it will wind up costing consumers more and will stifle competition. Tres Amigas CEO Phil Harris isn't all that worried about it.

Plans for the superstation were announced in October 2009 and Tres Amigas filed for regulatory approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in December. The superstation would be located in Clovis, New Mexico, and would be capable of transferring thousands of megawatts of power between the country's three power grids: the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection, also known as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

But opponents say consumers will pay more for power and that smaller local power companies wouldn't be able to compete with lower prices that would be available from marketers working through Tres Amigas.

Public Service Electric and Gas Company of New Jersey filed a request for clarification with FERC contending that Tres Amigas made confusing and conflicting statements in its request for negotiable rates.

Occidental Petroleum went further and asked FERC to either dump the project or require evidentiary hearings. The company argued that reliability of the project hadn't been determined and that there were concerns about rates. Occidental would not comment further and directed inquiries to its FERC filings.

Tres Amigas CEO Harris took pretty much a ho hum attitude about the opposition's filings and criticisms. Commenting that it was no more than business as usual, he was quoted in the Portales News-Tribune as saying it wasn't surprising that "the fourth largest oil and gas company in the U.S. does not want renewable energy developed.

"We're actually glad they came out... we wish they would have supported us because there's a lot of advantages. We think everyone wins with Tres Amigas, including gas and oil."

And if Harris is right about the numbers — 56 filings in favor of Tres Amigas and five against — he can probably afford to take the high road.

He said a FERC decision on the project could come at any time.

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