A newly approved transmission line project will add thousands of megawatts (MW) to Minnesota’s energy grid, improving energy reliability and efficiency across the state.
On April 11, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel Energy’s Minnesota Energy Connection (MEC) transmission project. The project consists of a 174-mile, 345-kilovolt double-circuit high-voltage transmission line and related infrastructure. The MEC project will also addresses the generation gap that will occur when Xcel’s Sherco coal plant retires in 2030.
The upgrade to the electric transmission system will enable 2,000 MW of electricity to be cost-effectively delivered to the Sherburne County Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant located in Becker, Minnesota, and allow over 4,000 MW of renewable energy to be connected to the grid along the project route.
The MEC and similar projects make vital improvements to Minnesota's aging transmission infrastructure. The Minnesota Department of Commerce’s 2023 Biennial Transmission Projects Report identified 164 current and anticipated transmission inadequacies—up from 103 in 2021.
Expanding and modernizing the grid is essential to ensuring that Minnesotans can access electricity when they need it. Transmission improvements alleviate bottlenecks that have led to curtailment, a process where energy systems are forced to temporarily halt operation due to a lack of capacity on the transmission lines.
In 2021, wind energy projects were curtailed in parts of the Buffalo Ridge area in southwest Minnesota, resulting in 50% reductions in wind energy output. The curtailment led to a correlating drop in generation tax revenue for counties where these projects are located. Three rural counties lost more than $1 million, with an additional $700,000 lost across 15 others.
Renewable energy projects like those in the Buffalo Ridge area provide a valuable source of tax revenue for rural communities, aiding in the funding of local schools, emergency services, infrastructure, and law enforcement. Projects also offer landowners a reliable source of income and create employment opportunities in rural areas. To fully capture these benefits, the state’s transmission grid must be updated to ensure it has capacity to support new, local renewable generation.
Once completed in 2028, the new MEC transmission line will carry power from southwest Minnesota to the Sherco site in Becker, delivering enough electricity to serve more than 1 million homes across the Upper Midwest.
