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Last week, Barry Smitherman, Chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, asked the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to “thoroughly re-evaluate the need for the Gillespie to Newton transmission line” that has been proposed to carry wind energy generated in West Texas to population centers along the I35 corridor. The proposed Gillespie to Newton transmission line had been slated to run through parts of Llano and Burnet Counties.

In his letter dated June 1, 2010, addressed to Trip Doggett, President and CEO of ERCOT, Smitherman pointed out that several other “transmission lines are planned for or under construction in the general area” which may change the original assumptions regarding the need for the Gillespie to Newton line.

Terry Hadley, spokesperson for PUC, said Smitherman’s letter indicates his desire to obtain the “best and latest information” available to assist the commission in its decision making role.

On Tuesday, Theresa Gage, spokesperson for ERCOT, said ERCOT would be undertaking further analysis of the Gillespie to Newton line. “ERCOT is evaluating the justification for this proposed CREZ circuit given all completed and planned improvements on the system. We will also be evaluating potential alternatives to this line, and will describe any viable alternatives in our report. We will submit our findings to the PUCT in a public filing.”

Earlier this year, Senator Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay was already questioning the need for completion of all the transmission lines proposed for the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones project. He explained that given changes in the economy and the softening of natural gas prices, fewer wind generation facilities are being installed. “We don’t need to build lines we don’t really need,” said Fraser, expressing concern that the CREZ system was possibly “over-designed” initially. “The CREZ transmission lines were designed to ease congestion on the grid, not just to carry wind energy from west Texas. Most of the new transmission lines are necessary to ease congestion, but the current merits of others, including the Gillespie to Newton line, need to be re-evaluated.”

Llano County Judge Wayne Brascom also questions whether the Gillespie to Newton line is really needed. “The LCRA’s decision to possibly upgrade the Ferguson Power Plant in Horseshoe Bay to make it more efficient will satisfy growing electricity needs in this area. With additional transmission lines already on the drawing board to move wind energy to the urban population centers, the state may not really need high voltage lines crossing Llano County.”

At public meetings to review the planned transmission route through Llano and Burnet Counties last year, citizens expressed concerns about the health, environmental, economic and aesthetic affects of the proposed lines, as well as the larger footprint needed for the higher voltage lines. The 345 kV lines would be supported by lattice towers rising between 120 to 180 feet from the ground and require a broader right of way than traditional transmission lines. The existing transmission lines in Llano and Burnet Counties carry 138 kV lines and rise 100 to 130 feet from the ground. In August 2009, the Llano County Commissioners Court adopted a resolution asking the PUC to route the high voltage transmission lines be outside of the county.

The Texas Legislature in 2006 mandated improved flow of electricity to larger cities from wind farms of west Texas and the panhandle. The PUC awarded contracts to a dozen transmission service providers to begin construction on 2,000 miles of new transmission lines and several hundred miles of existing transmission lines upgrades. The PUC selected the LCRA Transmission Services Corporation (TSC) to build the segment of new transmission lines and upgraded lines that were to run through Llano and Burnet Counties to a substation in Lampasas County.

After two open meetings held during April this year, the PUC denied the TSC’s application for the route of the Gillespie to Newton line. The public discussions and order filed in the case indicate the PUC did not feel TSC had provided the quantity and quality of routes the commission had expected to review in a case like this, and the proposed routes did not adequately parallel established property lines.

TSC has filed a Motion for Rehearing with the PUC and the matter is on the commission’s agenda on Friday, June 11, 2010. TSC is asking for clarification of the PUC’s decision, including, among other things, asking the PUC to set a filing date for a new application, and to sever the portion of the application on which no controversy exists (which includes the southern one-third of the project). The TSC motion does not argue the need for the line in the first place.

TSC’s motion states that its proposed routing of the Gillespie to Newton line was reasonable under the facts of the case. “To parallel property lines in that terrain would not only have been very expensive but would have resulted in the transmission lines traversing the property for some distance in a direction away from the Newton Station…Considering all of these factors (routing around known endangered species habitat, the difficult terrain in the area, the cost and additional length of routing along property lines in this area, the rugged terrain, and the large, irregularly shaped properties) LCRA TSC believes it made reasonable routing choices given the balancing test it must apply before it actually proposes a route.”

TSC’s motion says routing the proposed lines was constrained by many factors. It had to contend with established neighborhoods in the immediate proximity of the Gillespie station, as well as the cities of Llano and Lampasas, a number of state parks, including Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, the communities of Sunrise Beach, Granite Shoals, Highland Haven, Cottonwood Shores, Marble Falls, and Horseshoe Bay, and both Inks Lake and Lake Buchanan, while also routing around all areas of known endangered species habitat and, where possible, habitable structures either singly or in groupings, while still seeking out opportunities to use or parallel existing rights of way and property lines.

Clara Tuma, spokesperson for TSC, explained their role. “It’s not up to us to decide if the line is necessary. We know Chairman Smitherman has recently questioned the need for the line for a second time with ERCOT. But we also know ERCOT has told us the line is needed, and the Public Utility Commission has designated it as a priority. We’re under orders from the PUC to come up with a number of possible routes, and after commissioners decide on a particular route, to build that line in exactly the way the PUC wants it built. We’re doing our best to comply with that order from the PUC.”

Tuma offered an analogy to help understand TSC’s role. “We’re a little bit like a builder who is asked to build a house. The builder’s job is to design and build the house to someone else’s specifications, not to decide if the house is needed in the first place. In this case, the question of need falls to ERCOT and the PUC.”

Robert Weatherford, President of Save Our Scenic Hill Country Environment, said the group “fully supports PUC Chairman Smitherman’s request that ERCOT thoroughly re-evaluate the need for the Gillespie to Newton CREZ transmission line.” The PUC’s denial of TSC’s initial application demonstrates the “extreme difficulty of finding suitable high voltage transmission line routes through the hill country,” according to Weatherford. SOS Hill Country was initially formed in response to proposed wind energy development in Gillespie County, and more recently has worked to oppose erecting high voltage transmission lines in the hill country unless contractors use existing rights of way, use monopoles, parallel major highways and mitigate environmental impacts.

The Lower Colorado River Authority created TSC as a nonprofit corporation for transmission operations and in 2002 transferred to TSC ownership of its transmission facilities to satisfy the state’s unbundling requirement.

TSC has no employees but contracts with LCRA staff to operate and maintain the facilities and provide other services. As with other transmission systems in Texas, TSC is regulated by the PUC and coordinates its operations with ERCOT.

ERCOT manages the flow of electric power to 22 million Texas customers, representing 85 percent of the state’s electric load and 75 percent of the Texas land area. As the independent system operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects 40,000 miles of transmission lines and more than 550 generation units.