- Combustion
- Wind & solar
- In development
- Under construction
- Operating
- 10 · 100 · 1,000 MW
Map
- Combustion
- Wind & solar
- In development
- Under construction
- Operating
Cunningham: location and 3 exact-grade projects within 25 km. Basemap: Protomaps, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Cunningham
Power plant · Gas, combustion turbine
Key facts
Power plant · Gas, combustion turbineran 46% of 2025 Retiring- Capacity
- Capacity: sourceEIA-860M · Open licenseMW
- Commissioned
- 1965
- Net generation, 2025
- 1,792,031 MWh
- Grid
- 230 kV, 115 kV to Southwestern Public Service Co (SWPP)
- Location
- Lea County, New Mexico
- Operated by
- Southwestern Public Service Co
Output
- Gas
Details
Who’s behind it
- Owner
- Xcel Energy
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- Technology
- Gas, combustion turbine source: “Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine”
- Age
- 61 years since 1965
- Heat rate
- 11,091 Btu/kWh 2025
All 6 attributes from EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| EPA greenhouse gas reporting (GHGRP) |
|
| Fuel burned (MMBtu), 2025 | 19,875,252 |
| Capacity factor, 2025 | 0.461 |
| Heat rate (Btu/kWh), 2025 | 11,090.9 |
| Net generation (MWh), 2025 | 1,792,031 |
| Balancing authority code | SWPP |
Retirement
EIA-860M September 2026StatusAt least half of the plant's in-service nameplate capacity is scheduled to retire, on dates its owner has reported to EIA. As of EIA-860M for September 2026.- Capacity retired
- 75 MW
- Generators retired
- 1
- Next scheduled retirement
- December 2027
- Last scheduled retirement
- December 2040
- Capacity scheduled to retire
- 444.2 MW
- Generators scheduled to retire
- 3
- Share of in-service capacity scheduled
- 100%
- Capacity still in service
- 444.2 MW
| Generator | Technology | Nameplate | State | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natural Gas Steam Turbine | 75 MW | Retired | January 2024 |
| 2 | Natural Gas Steam Turbine | 190.4 MW | Scheduled to retire | December 2027 |
| 3 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | 126.9 MW | Scheduled to retire | December 2040 |
| 4 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | 126.9 MW | Scheduled to retire | December 2040 |
By technology
| Technology | Retired | Scheduled to retire |
|---|---|---|
| Natural Gas Steam Turbine | 75 MW | 190.4 MW |
| Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | 253.8 MW |
Grid
EIA-860 2025Grid fieldsAs the plant reported them to EIA-860 for 2025 (Schedule 2).- Grid voltage at the plant
- 230 kV, 115 kV
- Transmission or distribution system owner
- Southwestern Public Service Co
- Balancing authority
- Southwest Power Pool
- NERC region
- MRO
Transmission lines within 25 km (9)
Can the connection be reused?
A plant that retires usually leaves its substation, transmission connection and interconnection agreement behind, and those may be reusable by a new project at the same site. FERC Order No. 845 lets an interconnection customer use surplus interconnection service at an existing site, and some transmission providers' tariffs let a replacement resource take over a retiring unit's interconnection service, usually within a set time after the retirement. Whether any such right still exists here, who holds it and on what terms depends on the owner, the transmission provider and timing; this page does not establish any of that.
Ownership
2 companies2| Company | Role | Share | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Public Service Co | Operator | EIA-860M | ||
| Xcel Energy | Owner | 100.0% | 31 Dec 2023 | EPA GHGRP |
Timeline
- Stated Units 3, 4 scheduled to retire, 253.8 MW · EIA-860M
- Stated Unit 2 scheduled to retire, 190.4 MW · EIA-860M
- Stated Unit 1 scheduled to retire, 75 MW · EIA-860M
- In service · EIA-860M
Sources
6 sourcesSources EIA-860M · LBNL · OpenStreetMap · EIA · EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory · EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program — facility register with parent-company shares (Envirofacts pub_dim_facility; FLIGHT)
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Sources
- EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
- LBNL — A Harmonized Geospatial Dataset of U.S. Transmission Lines: Linking FERC Form 1 and HIFLD, 1994-2024 (OEDI submission 8742)Yin, Nait Belaid & Heleno (2026), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, OEDI, CC BY 4.0: A Harmonized Geospatial Dataset of U.S. Transmission Lines: Linking FERC Form 1 and HIFLD, 1994-2024. Modified by Inframation: HIFLD-side fields only, names re-cased, coordinates rounded.
- OpenStreetMap power network, US — transmission lines and cables (69 kV and up, or voltage not tagged) and substations, from Geofabrik's US state extracts© OpenStreetMap contributors. Power lines, cables and substations filtered and reshaped by Inframation from the OpenStreetMap elements in Overture Maps' base/infrastructure theme; this derived database is available under the Open Database License 1.0 as GeoParquet files at https://tiles.inframation.io/grid/osm-power/ (latest.json names the current version's files; licence: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright)
- EIA Open Data bulk file — Electricity (ELEC.zip; monthly plant net generation and fuel consumption since 2001)Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electricity bulk data (Form EIA-923 monthly plant series)
- EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
- EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program — facility register with parent-company shares (Envirofacts pub_dim_facility; FLIGHT)
Around this plant
Nearby
within 25 km| Project | Kind | Away | MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| AC Ranch I Under construction | Solar | 7.6 km | 75 |
| AC Ranch II Filed | Solar | 7.6 km | 230 |
| Cunningham Solar II Permitted | Solar | 8.2 km | 196 |