Grid United, a Houston company backed by a Houston billionaire, has begun the years-long process of connecting El Paso Electric’s Western power grid to the Eastern grid, providing a new electricity stream for this region.
The 5-year-old company has started buying residential properties in the far East Montana area of El Paso County as part of a possible route for high-voltage transmission lines, much to the chagrin of some homeowners in that area. It may cross some of the same areas where El Paso Electric (EPE) plans to build its own high-voltage power lines.
It’s likely Pecos West, the project’s name, would also go through Fort Bliss land. Permits to use that land would need to be secured from the U.S. Army post, said Ashley Kang, a Grid United spokesperson.
Early plans are for a about 200-mile, multibillion-dollar transmission line project that could carry up to 1.5 gigawatts of electricity between El Paso Electric’s system, on the Western grid, to the Eastern grid in southeastern New Mexico via a connection to the Southwestern Public Service Co. (SPS)’s system, a part of giant Xcel Energy.
Is Pecos West aiming at data centers?
Gigawatts are the huge amounts of electricity that eventually will be needed by the two huge data centers being built in Northeast El Paso and in the Santa Teresa, New Mexico area, an El Paso suburb, and by a proposed Fort Bliss data center in the East Montana area.
The Meta Platforms data center complex in El Paso and Oracle Corp.’s Project Jupiter complex in New Mexico have power plans in place.
However, Grid United’s Kang said the company was not formed to serve data centers but to modernize the nation’s electrical grid and make it more efficient.
The company was founded in 2021 by Michael Skelly, a pioneer in the U.S. wind energy industry, and Houston billionaire philanthropist John Arnold.
It began formulating its proposed grid interconnection projects well before the current, artificial intelligence-fueled data centers construction boom, Kang noted.
“Data centers are very interested in building quickly, and our project here, Pecos West, maybe would come on line in the mid-2030s, that’s 10 years from now. So, that’s not particularly quickly in the data center world,” Kang said.
Pecos West would cost billions and take at least several years to get all the necessary government agencies’ approvals, and land clearances.
It would allow electricity to move in both directions between the Western and Eastern grids, opening new power markets, strengthening the region’s electric system, and bringing economic benefits, including construction jobs, according to the Pecos West website.
Grid United’s project won’t connect to Texas grid
It won’t connect to the Texas power grid, known as ERCOT, as some reports indicated.
Grid United in 2022 proposed building a high-voltage transmission line, the Pecos West Intertie Project, to connect the Texas grid to the Western power grid via an El Paso Electric system connection.
The company in February 2023 withdrew its project application with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, or PUCT, after the commission rejected its plan.
The PUCT is one of the agencies that would have to approve the new Pecos West plan.
El Paso Electric gets interconnection request
Grid United has filed an interconnection request with El Paso Electric, but has not filed one with SPS, Kang said.
The company is considering connecting Pecos West to EPE’s Newman electric substation in Northeast El Paso, located next to the Newman Generating Station, the utility’s largest power plant.
El Paso Electric officials declined to comment on the Pecos West project.
Information about interconnection customers is not disclosed by the utility, Jacob Reyes, an EPE spokesperson, said in an email.
More: El Paso Electric by the numbers: 2025 sales up slightly, profit down
Final route not yet known
The Pecos West transmission lines possibly would exit through far East El Paso County into southeastern New Mexico.
“The route is far from finalized,” Kang said.
“Pecos West is just in the early days. So, there’s a long, long path of permitting ahead of us,” by a long list of local, state, and federal government agencies, she said.
Grid United has other projects in works
Pecos West is one of four Grid United projects proposed to connect the Western and Eastern power grids in several areas of the United States.
The furthest along is the North Plains Connector, a proposed 420-mile, $6 billion transmission line that would connect the two grids in North Dakota and Montana.
Grid United plans to use high-voltage, direct current (DC) transmission lines.
“DC is the preferred technology for moving large amounts of power across long distances” because it’s more efficient and more reliable than an AC (alternating current) system, according to the company’s website.
However, since U.S. utilities use AC power, Grid United grid connections require converter stations at each end. The stations convert AC to DC and vice versa, as needed.
“There are a handful of DC connections between the Eastern and Western Interconnections (grids), but none at this scale,” Kang said.
The company is also developing the Southline Transmission Project, an approximately 280-mile high-voltage transmission line in Arizona and New Mexico, along with associated substation facilities.
It ultimately will connect the El Paso Electric system in southern New Mexico to the Tucson Electric Power system in Arizona, according to Grid United’s website. Southline is not a Western-Eastern grid interconnection, as are the other proposed projects.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on X, and @vkolenc.bsky.social on Bluesky
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Houston firm aims to connect El Paso to Eastern U.S. power grid
Reporting by Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
