Xcel Energy’s Kiser Substation Begins Operations in Plainview

A new substation, part of Xcel Energy’s Power to the Plains Initiative, began providing power to the Plainview area in early December 2014.

Substations are intermediaries between power producers and consumers and provide many important functions including the regulation of power and alteration of voltage.

The new Kiser Substation is capable of augmenting voltage from 115-kilovolts to feed to smaller 69-kilovolt lines throughout the area network. It is connected via 115-kilovolt transmission lines to the Kress Substation and Cox Substation near Plainview.

In addition, two other area stations have been updated to 115-kilovolt service, the North Plainview and Kress Rural.

President of Southwestern Public Service Company, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, David Hudson said the infrastructure will play an important role in Plainview’s burgeoning industry.

We believe in Plainview’s ability to attract industry and create jobs. These new facilities give our economic developers the tools they need to retain and attract business, and they add value to the local tax rolls as well.”

The Kiser substation cost $6.3 million to construct and is the product of a 2010 high-voltage transmission study that identified $106.7 million worth of potential improvements as part of Xcel Energy’s Power for the Plains initiative.