News Release

May 15, 2003

PNM Community Effort Picks Three Alternatives
for Upgrading Electric Transmission System
Serving Santa Fe and Las Vegas

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Santa Fe: An innovative public-input process by PNM has pointed to three alternatives as the best way to upgrade the high-voltage electric transmission system that serves Santa Fe and Las Vegas and preserve electric reliability for area customers past 2004.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), acting as lead agency, will hold a public scoping meeting next week to begin taking public comment on the proposals, the result of PNM's Project Power effort.

The BLM is looking at three different proposals, two of which depend solely on upgrading or rebuilding transmission lines that already exist. A third proposal would involve upgrading two existing lines and also building 1.8 miles of new line in southwestern Santa Fe County.

"Fortunately, the three proposals now being considered depend largely on rebuilding existing lines, so visual and environmental impacts are minimal," said PNM Vice President Melvin Christopher. "In fact, we believe some of the new structures we're proposing pose less visual impact than structures already in place. We hope the BLM can act quickly on our request."

The BLM's public scoping meeting will be held 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 22. The meeting will be held at the Santa Fe Courtyard by Marriott, 3347 Cerrillos Road.

The BLM will solicit public input during these meetings, study environmental and community impacts, and then, with input from other agencies, decide which route is the environmentally preferred route and whether PNM should be given approval for the project.

PNM officials say any one of the three proposals would solve a problem that Santa Fe may face as soon as 2004. At that time, the area's electric demand will have grown enough that neither of two existing 115,000 volt (115kv) transmission lines—both of which bring power in to Santa Fe and which were built more than 40 years ago — will have enough capacity to supply the city's needs. Electric service could suffer if one of the lines failed due to lightning or a technical malfunction.

Two years ago, the company launched an effort known as Project Power to involve community leaders in the search for potential solutions to the problem. Project Power's Community Working Group looked at a variety of options and decided that a new or upgraded transmission line was the most feasible solution to the near-term problem. The group narrowed a PNM-provided list of 11 transmission options down to three options. These are the options now being considered by the BLM.

Christopher said the Project Power public-input process has been invaluable in selecting alternatives that might be suitable to the larger public. PNM is willing to build any of the three routes and hopes to have the new line in service sometime in 2004, he said.

The three proposals under consideration are:

• Norton to Zia North: This proposal involves upgrading 11 miles of existing transmission lines. For the first five miles, beginning at PNM's Norton Station in the Buckman Road area and ending near the county's Caja del Rio landfill, PNM would raise existing two-pole transmission structures by an average six feet and install heavier conductor. The next six miles would involve replacing existing two-pole structures, generally 65 feet in height, with new, single-pole structures about 70 feet in height. The single poles would carry two sets of transmission circuits rather than one. The upgraded line would end at a new switching station, Zia North, to be built in the Agua Fria area north of the intersection of Cerrillos and Zafarano roads.
• Norton to Zia: This proposal involves upgrading 13 miles of existing transmission lines. It would involve the same path and same construction mentioned above. However, instead of ending at a new switching station, it would terminate at Zia Switching Station, an existing PNM facility located near Governor Miles and Richards roads.
• Norton to Camel Tracks to Zia North: This proposal involves upgrading 13.5 miles of existing transmission line and building 1.8 miles of new transmission line. For the first nine miles, beginning at PNM's Norton Station near Buckman and ending north of the wastewater treatment plant in southwest Santa Fe County, PNM would raise existing two-pole structures by about six feet and install heavier conductor. The next 1.8 miles would involve building a new line, comprised of single-pole structures about 70 feet tall in an area just northwest of the airport, to create a link between two existing lines. A small substation would also need to be built in that area. The final 4.5 miles would involve stringing heavier conductor on existing single-pole structures. The line would terminate at the proposed Zia North Substation.