Summary: For the last decade ERCOT has been planning a 320-mile, $2.6 billion high-voltage connector, which will run from Garland, Texas through Louisiana to Mississippi. Some Texans -- and non-Texans -- think this is great way to make sure Texas always has energy. Others Texans think this is great way to lose control of our independent electric grid to the federally controlled electric grid throughout the rest of the US.
Latest Update: Thursday, 11 January, 2024
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A chilling plan. ERCOT has long term plans to connect to the federally controlled electric grid.
For the last decade ERCOT has been planning -- with an independent company, Pattern Energy -- to construct Southern Spirit Transmission, "a 320-mile, $2.6 billion high-voltage connector, which will run from Garland, Texas through Louisiana to Mississippi". (*1)
Some Texans -- and non-Texans -- think this is great way to make sure Texas always has energy. Others Texans think this is great way to lose control of our independent grid to the federally controlled electric grid throughout the rest of the US.
Texas has an independent electrical grid, not controlled or managed by the federal government; it's been that way since the early 1900s, when Congress passed a law to regulate interstate electricity, but Texas utilities choose to keep power within state lines.
And to support this independent electric rid, Texas established ERCOT, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas. However, ERCOT has not kept dependable electric capacity growing as rapidly and consumer needs.
• Quietly, behind the scenes, state regulators have worked for more than a decade with Pattern Energy, a private company, to create the “Southern Spirit Transmission.” Dallas Morning News, 03 January 2024
The goal is a 400-mile transmission line from the Texas/Louisiana border, through Louisiana and into Mississippi to connect with grids in the southeastern United States.
*1 A welcome bridge off ERCOT island, Pattern Energy, 09 January 2024
As columnist Dave Lieber wrote last week, and a Houston news station reported in 2021, the staunchly independent Texas energy grid may soon get off its “island” and connect to wider grids in the Southeast. A company called Pattern Energy is building a 320-mile, $2.6 billion high-voltage connector called Southern Spirit Transmission, which will run from Garland through Louisiana to Mississippi.
• Texas A&M assistant professor discusses plan to link ERCOT to other Southeastern grids, KBTX, 03 January 2024
• Southern Spirit Transmission, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Pattern Energy
Long-discussed plans to connect ERCOT power grid to other states draw new attention.
• Adding to ERCOT? | Energy company looking into extra power sources in Texas, Pattern Energy, 04 October 2021
The ERCOT grid is called an “electrical island” since it’s isolated from other energy sources. One company has been trying to change that since 2011.
At the peak of the February [2021] arctic freeze, when 51 gigawatts of unavailable electricity left millions in the dark and cold, Texas was not able to get much help from neighbors.
It’s not that neighboring grids didn’t want to offer assistance. They couldn’t. They’re not connected to the ERCOT power gird.
Texas’ energy independence, what many call a “go-it-alone” approach, dates back to when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. Congress passed a law to regulate interstate electricity, but Texas utilities choose to keep power within state lines. It shaped the nation’s power grid system as it looks today. The Western interconnect grid and Eastern interconnect grid are regulated by the feds, but the ERCOT-operated Texas grid is not. It’s been described as an electrical island. Except for a few, small connections or tie-ins, it’s largely isolated from neighbors and outside help.
Pattern Energy has spent a decade trying to change that with a two gigawatt transmission line called Southern Cross. The project will connect Texas to states in the southeast, and the company said it will do so without jeopardizing the independence of ERCOT.
“Congress has set a very narrow path, a road map for how you can do an interconnection between ERCOT and a non-ERCOT region,” said attorney and Pattern Energy lobbyist Michael Jewell.
“Pattern and Southern Cross were able to thread the needle of the federal requirements in order to get that order,” he said.
• Long-discussed plans to connect ERCOT power grid to other states draw new attention, WFAA, 03 January 2024
Two proposed projects would allow Texans to draw some power from other states, but ERCOT would retain independence and evade federal