Covering high-voltage infrastructure building Texas's power future -- new projects, ERCOT planning, and regulatory battles.
In order to speed up the development of grid infrastructure, the Legislature cut the clock on transmission permits from a year to 180 days.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has called a special meeting for Aug. 21 devoted entirely to two of the giant power lines proposed to carry electricity out of the Permian Basin, and has moved it out of its own hearing room to a hotel ballroom across town.
The chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas has called his fellow commissioners and the state's grid operator into a special open meeting this Friday, Aug. 14, to talk through the policy questions hanging over the Permian Basin power-line buildout — while promising that no final decision on the Howard-Solstice line, the biggest piece of that buildout, will be made in the room.
Gov. Greg Abbott has announced a Texas Energy Fund grant totaling more than $8 million to strengthen electric reliability for members of the Bailey County Electric Cooperative Association in the Texas Panhandle and South Plains, according to an Aug. 5 news release from the governor's office.
Texas' two top presiding officers have lined up behind a Senate committee chairman's call for state regulators to reject pending applications for the first 765-kilovolt transmission lines ever proposed in Texas, and the House will take up the issue at its own hearing in three weeks — a rapid escalation that leaves one of the largest infrastructure projects in state history facing resistance from multiple corners of the Capitol.
Texas is moving to string a new backbone of ultra-high-voltage power lines across the state — and on Wednesday the people whose land sits in the path came to the Capitol in numbers rarely seen for an interim hearing.
Two state administrative law judges have recommended that Texas regulators approve the Howard-Solstice 765-kilovolt transmission line along Route 4, a roughly 371-mile path estimated at about $2.18 billion, clearing one of the last procedural hurdles before the Public Utility Commission decides the case next month.
Administrative law judges on July 24 denied two motions seeking to reopen the record in the disputed Howard-Solstice transmission line case, keeping the proceeding on schedule as they prepare a recommendation for the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
Two state lawmakers have formally asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to hold off on a final decision on the Howard-Solstice high-voltage power line — and on every other 765-kilovolt segment of the state's transmission plan — until after the Legislature meets in 2027, arguing the state has not tested whether cheaper alternatives could avoid the lines entirely.
The Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce will take invited and public testimony July 29 on ERCOT reliability and Senate Bill 6's large-load rules, and on how a fast-expanding network of 765-kilovolt transmission lines will affect Texas landowners.