ERCOT eyes 3 billion in transmission line projects
The annual transmission planning report, which covers the 2008-2012 period, is similar in many ways to the report ERCOT issued in January 2007. Then, ERCOT projected that $3.1 billion would be spent on new transmission lines and related projects in the 2007-11 period.
The report includes several 345-kV transmission-line projects that have been under develop Clear Spring to Salado that will be energized in 2010-11, and an 198-mile project from Red Creek to Killeen that will come online in 2012.
Planned improvements identified for the first time in 2008's five-year plan, ERCOT said, include a 22-mile, 345-kV line from Nacogdoches to Lufkin in eastern Texas; a 345-kV switching station in northwest Houston to increase the ability of the grid to transport power between northern Texas and the Houston area; and additional autotransformer and 138-kV line upgrades in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.
The reliability council said two new 345-kV lines and a new 345-kV switching station were included in the West region plan "due to the approximately 6,500 MW of wind generation that is installed or has completed an interconnection agreement in the West congestion management zone."
ERCOT added, however, that these West zone upgrades "may be superseded by the transmission lines that are ordered as a result of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone process underway at the Public Utility Commission of Texas." The PUC is expected to designate the final CREZ transmission projects in mid-2008.
Related News
Quebec's electricity ambitions reopen old wounds in Newfoundland and Labrador
OTTAWA - As Quebec prepares to ramp up electricity production to meet its ambitious economic goals, the government is trying to extend a power deal that has caused decades of resentment in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Around 15 per cent of Quebec's electricity comes from the Churchill Falls dam in Labrador, through a deal set to expire in 2041 that is widely seen as unfair. Quebec Premier François Legault not only wants to extend the agreement, he wants another dam on the Churchill River to help make his province what he has called a "world leader for the green economy."
But renewing that…
