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<\/p>\nOpponents of new ultra-high-voltage transmission lines voiced their concerns into the wee hours of the morning at a 15-hour-long state capitol hearing on Wednesday and Thursday. Speakers shared their fear over the project\u2019s local impacts, their anger over the proliferation of data centers and their distrust of renewable energy.<\/p>\n
State regulators and grid managers say that new electric transmission is necessary to maintain Texas grid reliability. But the long night of protest laid bare the challenges ahead for major additions to the energy system.<\/p>\n
Here are some key takeaways.<\/p>\n
Grid operators say the state needs new transmission to avoid blackouts<\/p>\n
The 765 kilovolt transmission lines would be constructed in phases to move more electricity, more efficiently, around fast-growing Texas.<\/p>\n
The first phase of that larger transmission network, the routing of which is already underway, is called the Permian Basin Reliability Plan.<\/p>\n
That would create three 765 kilovolt ultra-high-voltage transmission lines running from the central part of the state to West Texas to answer energy shortages due largely to high demand from the oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n
The lines are bigger and taller than any currently in Texas, reaching a height of 160 feet and occupying a right of way 200 feet wide.<\/p>\n
At the hearing, state electric utility regulators said they approved the plan for ultra-high-voltage lines because building a few big lines leaves a smaller footprint than building several lower voltage lines to carry the same amount of electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201c765 is fewer lines,\u201d Thomas Gleason, Executive Director of the Public Utility Commission of Texas told lawmakers. \u201cWhile each line requires more right of way, in totality, it’s actually less right of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Gleason and officials from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas told lawmakers that not building more transmission is simply not an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of power that would have to flow [through existing lines] would damage the existing infrastructure,\u201d said ERCOT Chief Operating Officer Woody Rickerson.<\/p>\n
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The three orange lines on this ERCOT map of proposed high voltage lines would be the first additions to an expanded state transmission system. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd how long down the line would it be before you started getting worried about rolling blackouts [in the Permian Basin]?\u201d asked State Senator Kevin Sparks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think next year is a possibility,\u201d said Rickerson.<\/p>\n
Rural landowners say they are bearing the burden for others’ energy use.<\/p>\n
Over 200 people attended the hearing to testify about grid issues and the transmission projects, which the vast majority of speakers opposed.<\/p>\n
Rural landowners whose communities lie along the proposed routes say the projects would damage local landscapes and economies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the Nueces River that goes through [our ranch] for four miles and we\u2019re concerned about what the watershed will be like when this two hundred foot swath is cut through the property,\u201d said Jeannie Dullnig, whose Texas Hill Country Ranch would be crossed by the Howard-Solstice line, the southernmost of the three transmission projects in the plan.<\/p>\n
Many opponents described the lines as \u201cbig extension cords\u201d that would cut through their communities, or take energy from their areas, while offering no local benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand why we need to move our power that is local to Erath County and those counties that are close proximity to Comanche Peak Power Plant, to West Texas or to East Texas,\u201d said Emily Martin Howe, whose land in Erath County would be impacted by the Dinosaur to Longshore segment of the northernmost transmission line.<\/p>\n
Martin Howe and others said power generation should be located closer to where energy is consumed.<\/p>\n
The fight is about more than just transmission lines<\/p>\n
While many people who live near the proposed transmission routes oppose them because of the local impact, others have taken up the fight for other reasons.<\/p>\n
An improved transmission system would allow for more wind and solar power to flow throughout the state. That\u2019s a benefit according to public health officials, climate scientists and many power grid operators.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
An image from an LCRA document showing a schematic of a 765 kV ultra high voltage transmission line.<\/p>\n
But opponents of the state\u2019s renewable energy boom do not like it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we charge through with these lines right now, it’s almost guaranteed that what we’ll fill these up with is more wind, mostly solar,\u201d said State Senator Sparks.<\/p>\n
Sparks, and others, argued that power from renewable sources and energy storage batteries is less reliable than power from natural gas generators.<\/p>\n