PUC awards wind power transmission line contracts

By ELIZABETH SOUDER / The Dallas Morning News - January 30, 2009
esouder@dallasnews.com

The Public Utility Commission on Thursday assigned seven utilities to build pieces of a $5 billion transmission line project to bring West Texas wind power to North Texas and Houston.

The decision marks the next step in the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone project, designed to promote renewable energy investment.

Texas has more wind power than any other state, and most of it is in West Texas. Existing transmission lines have nearly reached their capacity to bring wind power to population centers.

"Oncor is pleased by the PUC's movement from discussion to action, stimulating economic development through investment and the creation of hundreds of new jobs," said Don Clevenger, vice president of external affairs for Oncor, which won the largest piece of the transmission project.

Oncor, the electric delivery arm of Energy Future Holdings, will build around $1.34 billion in transmission lines in North Texas for the project.

Another Dallas company, Sharyland Utilities, lead by Hunter Hunt, will build $394 million in transmission lines.

The commission also included newcomers in the process. Wind Energy Transmission Texas, a unit of Spain's Isolux Corsan Concesiones SA, will build $402 million in transmission lines.

Traditionally, transmission line utilities own and operate the power lines in particular regions of the state. In the past, each utility suggests and builds its own projects.

For the CREZ project, the commissioners came up with power lines themselves and allowed anyone to bid on them.

Next, the utilities must file a traditional transmission line application by October, said PUC spokesman Terry Hadley. The application would include proposals for exactly where the lines should go.

WIND POWER TRANSMISSION LINES

Here's how the major projects awarded by the Public Utility Commission for wind power transmission lines break down. The numbers are estimates, and the PUC may award other contracts.

Oncor: $1.34 billion

Electric Transmission Texas: $789 million

Lower Colorado River Authority: $750 million

Lone Star Transmission: $564 million

Wind Energy Transmission Texas: $402 million

Sharyland Utilities: $394 million

Cross Texas Transmission: $390 million

SOURCE: Public Utility Commission
Read more in the Dallas Morning News

Texas expands wind-energy capacity 57%

By JOHN PORRETTO - The Associated Press - Jan. 18, 2008
HOUSTON -- Texas expanded its wind-energy capacity by 57 percent in 2007, solidifying the state's position as the nation's leader in wind-generated power, a trade group said Thursday.

Nationally, more than $9 billion in investment helped U.S. capacity grow by 45 percent last year, and 2008 is poised to match those levels, the American Wind Energy Association said.

Texas' installed capacity jumped to 4,356 megawatts at the end of 2007 from 2,768 megawatts a year earlier, the association said. That placed it far ahead of the next four states: California (2,439 installed megawatts), Minnesota (1,299), Iowa (1,273) and Washington (1,163).

Texas has 1,238 megawatts under construction, tops in the U.S.
Read more in the Fort Worth Star Telegram

Public utility commission clears way for more wind power

State will determine routes for transmission lines to rural areas
By Asher Price - AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF - Saturday, July 21, 2007
The state Public Utility Commission opened the way for a big boost in wind power production in Texas on Friday.

The commission designated swaths of the state for the construction of new power lines that would carry wind-generated electricity to consumers. The decision serves as a pledge that the state will help build those lines, giving wind power developers the confidence to build turbines in far-flung, windy areas of Texas, according to Mike Aaron, a staff member with Virtus Energy, an Austin renewable energy consulting firm.

The state is the nation's leading producer of wind power. In 2006, Texas added 774 megawatts of wind energy capacity. But Friday's decision directs the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state's electric grid, to plan for power lines that could deliver at least 10,000 more megawatts of renewable power by 2012.

That amount is enough to power nearly 3 million homes. The lines could end up delivering as much as 25,000 megawatts of wind energy, depending on how many wind farms are eventually built.

Wind developers cheered the decision.

"The windiest areas of the state are far from cities," Aaron said. "This gives certainty to wind developers that there will be transmission to those areas."

He said it can take a year to build a wind farm, but five to build the transmission lines needed to send power to cities.

In 2005, the Legislature passed a measure requiring that the utility commission designate zones and accompanying transmission projects to boost the flow of renewable energy into more populated areas.

A recent report by the state energy conservation office called transmission "the greatest hurdle facing the wind industry."

"Transmission constraints in far West Texas have negatively affected the operations of large winds farms in this prime wind generation area," according to the report.

Environmental groups who had pushed the state to invest in conservation and renewable energy projects to satisfy Texas' growing appetite for power also applauded the utility commission's decision.

"We commend the utility industry for rising to the challenge in meeting Texans' demands for cleaner, safe sources of energy," Scott Anderson, an energy policy specialist for Environmental Defense, said in a statement.

Read more in the Austin American Statesman

TXU inks wind power deal

Dallas Business Journal - May 15, 2007

TXU Corp. has inked a deal with Airtricity, a Dublin, Ireland, renewable energy company, that will add 209 megawatts of wind power to TXU's portfolio.

Under the five-year deal Airtricity will provide Dallas-based TXU (NYSE: TXU) with wind power from a wind farm Airtricity is building southwest of Abilene. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Read more