Project Information

The Rail Tie Wind Project (Project) is a proposed utility-scale wind energy facility under development by ConnectGen Albany County LLC (ConnectGen). The Project would be located in southeastern Albany County, WY, and the Project Area would encompass approximately 26,000 acres of ranchland on private and Wyoming State Lands located near Tie Siding, Wyoming. The Project would have a generating capacity of up to 504 megawatts (MW) of renewable wind energy.

ConnectGen has applied to interconnect the Project to the existing Ault-Craig 345-kilovolt (kV) transmission line that intersects the Project Area, under the Western Area Power Administration’s (WAPA) Large Generator Interconnection Process. The Ault-Craig 345-kV transmission line is jointly owned by WAPA, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, and Platte River Power Authority. In accordance with its Open Access Transmission Service Tariff (Tariff), WAPA’s consideration to grant an interconnection request is a major Federal action subject to environmental review pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the Department of Energy, and Council on Environmental Quality NEPA implementing regulations. Under these regulations, ConnectGen’s Project is considered a connected action to WAPA’s Federal decision of granting an interconnection to its transmission system.

WAPA has prepared a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that analyzes the impacts related to the development of the Project proposed by ConnectGen. This draft EIS describes the physical, biological, cultural, and socioeconomic resources in and around the Project. The draft EIS considers the impacts of WAPA’s Federal action and ConnectGen’s proposed Project, as well as the “no action” alternative.