Le Mesa Power Station Preparing for Commercial Operations

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Public Service Company of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico), a totally owned subsidiary of PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) (Albuquerque, New Mexico), is in the process of testing its $75 million natural gas-fired 135MW combustion turbine/generator west of Le Mesa, New Mexico.

Construction of the first phase started in October of 2001 with the potential development of two additional phases in the future. The second phase would cost an additional $50 million with the addition of a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and a 75MW steam turbine/generator set. Any further phases would need to be permitted. Construction started last year and was performed by a joint venture of TIC (Steamboat Springs, Colorado) and Bibb Engineering (Decatur, Georgia) called Afton Power Partners.

Public Service Company of New Mexico is a regulated utility that provides electricity and natural gas to more than 1.3 million people in New Mexico and employs over 2,700 personnel. The company was originated in 1917 as Albuquerque Gas and Electric Company.