Phil Harris is masterminding an electricity superhighway — a facility near Clovis that will connect the nation's three main power grids for the first time.

The Tres Amigas Superstation will link the Western Interconnection, Eastern Interconnection and Texas Interconnection at a point in southeastern New Mexico. It also will provide the transmission capacity that power managers say is needed to handle the renewable energy expected from new solar and wind sources.

The hub will allow energy to flow between the grids via superconductor cables in underground pipelines and AC/DC converters. The multifacility project will be built on 22.5 square miles of land leased from the New Mexico State Land Office.

The superstation will be built in 500-megawatt units. Harris hopes to commence construction on the first one next year. The projected cost for the first phase is about $600 million. Eventually, Tres Amigas will have the capacity to move as much as 30 gigawatts of power between the three grids.

A world power marketer

Harris named the interconnection project Tres Amigas because he wanted a Southwestern name and one that's female. "I know of no power plant named after a woman," he said.

The new Tres Amigas office in downtown Santa Fe is decked with Western art, and Harris has the ironlike grip of a rancher. He rode rough stock in high school and looks natural in a cowboy hat and boots. He's a member of the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association.

The Lovington ranch kid grew up to become a West Point graduate with an engineering degree and a two-tour veteran with Army Special Forces in Vietnam.

He went on to work as an engineer and then manager with various power companies before becoming president and chief executive officer of PJM Interconnection. Harris helped develop the company into the largest regional transmission organization in the world, responsible for delivering 240,000 megawatts of electricity to 71 million people in 14 states.

He retired from PJM in 2007, after a PJM market monitor accused upper management of wrongdoing and federal energy regulators began investigating. Until then, PJM was held up as a model for a deregulated power market. PJM continues to defend its positions, but Harris is no longer involved.

The blip didn't slow Harris down. MMC Energy elected him as one of its board members and chairman of its audit committee. He is a senior fellow in PennFuture's Center for Energy, Enterprise and the Environment. He helped form a coalition of very large power operators to discuss building major power transmission lines and integrating new renewable energy sources. China contracted with him to serve as a technical innovation adviser, and European countries are consulting with him on creating a supergrid.

"China and Europe are moving forward with connecting their grids and renewables," he said. "Why not us? The United States needs to step up and start using renewables."

A Western power promise

"The West is rich in renewable energy, and we should be tapping into it," Harris said.

The Western Governors Association estimates that New Mexico alone has the potential to generate 27 gigawatts of energy from renewable sources. "New Mexico only uses 5 gigawatts of power," Harris said.

Existing energy transmission lines in the West are almost at capacity. New lines are needed to deliver electricity from new renewable sources, experts say. And new interconnections are needed to move the energy from the sun- and wind-rich West to the East.

One of the problems is the current system for delivering power across the country is complex and separated by region. The lack of connection limits competition in power markets, Harris said. "In the U.S., no one is in charge. We have over 4,000 entities involved with power."

Those entities include investor-owned utilities such as Public Service Company of New Mexico, 800 municipal power companies, 900 electric cooperatives, renewable energy generators and power traders such as Goldman Sachs. Regulations vary by group. So do power interconnections.

"There's no way you can get a single decision about what is best for America," Harris said.

"People are paying more (for electricity) than they should because it is a constrained market," he added.

Tres Amigas will make the power market more competitive. Harris is banking on it, to the tune of investing $1 million of his own money in the project, he said.

He said the project also will create jobs and boost renewable energy as a part of the overall energy-supply picture.

The costs of the Tres Amigas project will be covered by investors, and its success depends on customers in the power market.

The project has received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to negotiate prices directly with major power purchasers.

Harris said the major resistance to the project is coming from Occidental Petroleum in Texas. "They make a lot of money off selling peak power to Texas," he said. "They came at us with all guns blazing."

Occidental has filed arguments against the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The company argues Harris hasn't proven the project's reliability and doubts his claims the superstation will result in lower electricity costs for consumers.

In addition, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, not the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, oversees energy transmission in most of Texas — and wants to keep it that way.

Unlocking potential

Harris said he now has three renewable-energy companies negotiating for half the capacity on the future Tres Amigas transmission lines. "None are from New Mexico," he said.

New Mexico energy producers won't be able to take advantage of Tres Amigas without more transmission lines, Harris said. "New Mexico is not going to unlock the potential on renewable energy until it resolves the transmission-line problem," he said. "We've got to have more lines built in New Mexico to deal with interstate power commerce."

Gov. Bill Richardson established a task force a few weeks ago to devise a statewide electricity transmission plan for moving solar and wind energy produced in New Mexico. The group, which met for the first time Aug. 4, is tasked with developing a five- to 20-year plan by Nov. 1.

"We have an opportunity to strategically put New Mexico in the driver's seat when it comes to creating green jobs and capitalizing on our vast renewable-energy resources," said Jim Noel, who heads the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. "The development and export of New Mexico's world-class solar and wind resources would stimulate the state's economy for years to come."

According to the New Mexico Energy and Minerals Department, the state has over 15,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects on hold because of the transmission bottleneck.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.