ERCOT may connect with eastern power grid to avoid winter emergency conditions
NORTH TEXAS - A plan is in the works to link ERCOT to the eastern electrical grid. The project, Southern Spirit Transmission, would allow Texas to draw power from other states in case of emergency.
However, this project, which has been in the works for more than a decade, is far from a done deal.
A spokesperson for Pattern Energy, the private company behind the project, told the CBS News Texas I-Team the company anticipates the project will begin construction in 2026 with completion in 2029.
The plan calls for a 400-mile transmission line to be built from Texas across Louisiana and into Mississippi. These high-power lines would export Texas' solar and wind power out of state and, in times where Texas' grid nears emergency conditions, the energy flow could be reversed and Texas could pull in power from eastern electrical grids.
In those cases, the Southern Spirit Transmission could provide an extra 2,000 megawatts to the Texas grid. That's enough to keep the lights on for 400,000 homes.
Approvals for the $2.6 billion project have been granted by both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, while necessary right-of-way application are currently pending before the public service commissions of Louisiana and Mississippi, according to Pattern Energy.
A similar project was proposed that would have connected ERCOT in West Texas to the grid in El Paso, which is not part of ERCOT. That project was turned down because it did not comply with state law.
Beth Garza, a former monitor of ERCOT, said Texas would be better prepared for severe winter storms like the winter blast in February 2021 if the Texas' grid was better connected to the western and eastern grids.
Texas has long resisted connecting to avoid federal oversight, but Garza said she believes there are ways to connect and keep ERCOT's independence.
"I'm not looking for federal oversight of the electricity system but there are ways to increase ERCOT's ability to draw on remote resources from outside the region," she said. "As we think about other winter storms that have hit other parts of the country, those areas that have the ability to import lots of power remotely are the ones that are most able to survive the weather."
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