AMARILLO, Texas (June 29, 2020) – Work to upgrade Xcel Energy’s Amarillo electric distribution system continued unabated throughout the weeks of COVID-19 lockdowns, easing bottlenecks just in time for peak summer demand.
The most recent improvement, the new $9 million Western Street Substation, is now in service on South Western Street south of Southwest 45th Avenue, freeing up capacity on neighboring substations and providing room for additional growth. Additionally, work has continued to upgrade lines in the San Jacinto area and other neighborhoods west of downtown and a new substation is under construction between Amarillo and Canyon to meet rising electricity demand in that area.
“Even though economic activity slowed during the recent lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19, electricity demand is already picking up as businesses reopen and our customers seek the comfort of air conditioning on these really hot days,” said David Hudson, president, Xcel Energy – Texas. “And as the strong growth we were seeing at the first of 2020 builds back in, Xcel Energy will be ready to power the growing economy now and well into the future.”
The Western Street project provides a new power source in southwest Amarillo that allowed Xcel Energy to reroute existing feeder lines through the new substation, as well as add new ones. This has relieved pressure on nearby substations that have been loaded almost to capacity on hot summer days.
A multiyear project to upgrade distribution lines and transformers in Amarillo’s historic San Jacinto neighborhood and adjoining areas also continued through the spring months. These neighborhoods were developed a century ago and had been served off a lower voltage than the rest of Amarillo. Xcel Energy has been upgrading the lines to a standard voltage that not only boosts the power-handling capacity of the system, but also helps speed power restoration by quickly routing power from alternate power sources in the event of an outage.
In response to strong growth in demand between Amarillo and Canyon, Xcel Energy broke ground this spring on the new Hunsley Substation north of Canyon off FM 2590. And additional growth in northwest Amarillo has led the company to upgrade substation breakers at the Bush Substation to boost that station’s protection system as more customers are connected.
In addition to these projects, Xcel Energy continues to replace aging utility poles across the city to harden the system against severe weather and prevent outages. Current pole replacement efforts in Amarillo are taking place in far north Amarillo along the Cherry Street corridor, but poles across the city have been tagged for replacement. In all, Xcel Energy is on track to replace close to 5,000 poles this year in its Texas and New Mexico service area, a fourfold increase in pole replacements from earlier years.
“All this combined with ongoing substation improvements in east and southeast Amarillo are keeping our crews busy across all parts of the city,” Hudson said. “These efforts point to the strength of the Amarillo economy and the faith Xcel Energy has in our city’s future.”
About the local distribution grid
The power grid in Amarillo is comprised of many substations, transformers, and hundreds of miles of transmission and distribution lines. Transmission lines transport electricity from power plants into the city. Substations transform electricity to lower voltages and send it along distribution lines that are located up and down city streets and alleys.
The flow of electric current is measured in amps, which can be likened to the speed of water moving through pipes. Voltage is much like pressure in water pipes, and is what allows amps to flow over power lines. As new homes and businesses take up more of the system’s capacity, the addition of new substations and feeder lines means more electricity can flow to new customers without overloading the system. And in the event of outages, Xcel Energy has more options to reroute the power supply in order to restore customers in less time.
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About Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) provides the energy that powers millions of homes and businesses across eight Western and Midwestern states. Headquartered in Minneapolis, the company is an industry leader in responsibly reducing carbon emissions and producing and delivering clean energy solutions from a variety of renewable sources at competitive prices. For more information, visit xcelenergy.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.