Wyoming energy officials have drawn a map identifying routes where huge new electrical transmission lines could boost the state's role as a major energy supplier to the West and the rest of the nation.

The Wyoming Infrastructure Authority, which serves as an intermediary to broker power line deals between electrical generators and electrical customers, released maps this week detailing strategic energy corridors based on several pending transmission deals.

The mapping was done in partnership with National Grid USA and builds on work done in the Rocky Mountain Area Transmission Study, which identified several potential transmission pathways to link Wyoming to Western markets.

Wyoming's effort parallels the federal government's West-Wide Energy Corridor effort to identify wire and pipeline corridors throughout 11 Western states. Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office has indicated that it will ask the federal government to give priority to the routes identified by National Grid USA.

The new maps are also part of a continuing effort toward completing at least three major power lines from Wyoming to California, Colorado's Front Range and Arizona.

Steve Waddington, the Infrastructure Authority's executive director, said the corridors represent areas where the group wants to see big new electrical transmission lines - on the scale of 500 kilovolts or higher. He said anything smaller could limit future growth along those routes; that's why it's important that power developers cooperate with future energy demand in mind.

"We are talking thousands of megawatts, and there are limited corridors to the Southwest, particularly how you cross Utah and down into Phoenix," Waddington said.

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