Wyoming Electric Co-Op plans line to Weld County

PINE BLUFFS – A Wyoming electric cooperative will soon build a $7.3 million transmission line to Weld County in Colorado.

Officials from High West Energy Inc. said the 30-mile line will run from the east side of Cheyenne to near Hereford, Colo. to service a gas processing facility owned by EOG Resources, a Houston-based company with operations in both Wyoming and Colorado.

High West General Manager Brian Heithoff classified the 34.5-kilovolt-ampere line as “a small transmission line.”

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Platte River must prepare for the retirement of 431 megawatts (MW) of dispatchable, coal-fired generation by the end of the decade and address more frequent extreme weather events that can bring dark calms (periods when there is no sun or wind).

The co-op received permission from the Wyoming Public Service Commission, the quasi-judicial branch that governs public utilities, July 9 to obtain a $7.3 million loan from CoBank to finance the line.

Heithoff said the agreement with EOG will help the utility recoup the installation costs over time with its “huge” facility.

“It’s a big footprint,” he said of the gas-processing facility.

High West will also leverage the new line to bring other customers on in the area, Heithoff said.

“There will be taps off the line as additional customers come on in that area,” Heithoff said. “We’re working with another oil company in the area and probably others in the future. It’s a good thing for High West and also a good thing for EOG – they can sell gas on the market.”

But perhaps most important for the 10,000-member co-op, it opens up new territory.

“This allows us to get facilities to Weld County where we had few other facilities prior,” Heithoff said.