As previously reported multiple time on AFN, some Texans do not want data centers, fearing they will use too much energy, water, and land. Meanwhile, many of these centers are planned for rural areas.
Some residents are also against the proposed 765 kV transmission lines due to where the lines could run, notification issues and eminent domain.
The Texas Tribune says that now, the state’s top leaders — who welcomed the initial proposals — have called on regulators to delay the projects. However, some are sounding the alarm on blackouts if the lines are not built.
Different industries are also unsure on when and if they will be able to connect to the new grid due to the pause.
Brent Bennett is a policy director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF).
“(When) we do transmission planning, ERCOT (The Electric Reliability Council of Texas) looks at what demand is coming and what supply is coming. Then they connect those up with transmission until they resolve all the contingencies in their model,” Bennett explains.
Therefore, there’s no outages, he says.
“Now, the problem is that they looked at a couple different demand scenarios and even different ways of looking at the transmission. They kept the same generation profile,” Bennett states. “They assumed that over 90% of the future generation coming into the system to serve the demand will be wind and solar.”
And that’s the problem with the plan, according to Bennett.
“We see a plan that is very similar to what the CREZ-lines (Competitive Renewable Energy Zones) were 15 years ago, where the primary purpose of those lines is to move wind and solar around. And our research is pretty clear: you don’t need such large cross-state transmission lines if you build energy-dense generation close to where demand is. You still need transmission, but you just don’t need these big cross-state lines,” Bennett says.
While ERCOT is concerned about blackouts if the lines don't get built, research from Life:Powered, an initiative of TPPF, shows that ERCOT's reliance on wind and solar will backfire. Life:Powered predicts that “a 1-in-10-year winter storm in 2030, even with adequate new transmission, could still result in nearly three days of outages and cost tens of billions of dollars.”
