In preparation for population growth and more data centers, seven 765 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines are proposed that would cover a lot of the state, reports Texas Scorecard.
American Stewards of Liberty, a pro-property rights group, said that the state is planning to take "4,000 linear miles" to build three of the transmission lines.
Recently, Texans gathered in Fort McKavett in west Texas to voice their opposition to the lines.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a Texas grid operator, said that peak energy demand could quadruple in about six years but said that estimate needed revision.
Brent Bennett of the Texas Public Policy Foundation says transmission costs on Texans' electric bills related to the new lines would rise.
"First of all, the financing. You have interest, equity returns to the transmission company, taxes, maintenance — all of that gets rolled into a fee called the transmission cost of service that gets uplifted to all the ratepayers,” says Bennett, “but these big projects get socialized across the whole state. So, we all pay a charge for that. The average homeowner pays between two and three grand a year, I think, in electricity costs.”
Just shy of a 10% increase, he notes.
According to Life:Powered, Texas ratepayers pay about $1 billion per year to support transmission investments, and if the current transmission plans are approved, annual transmission costs in ERCOT will more than double.
Another reason the lines are being built, Bennett says, is because of all the wind and solar that's getting built to serve this demand. The biggest problem is transferring the wind and solar that is needed around the state.
“It's really being driven by the fact that we are not building gas generation close to demand. On the one hand, you have a lot of demand growth on one side, and on the other hand, you have a lot of generation that is not located near that demand,” states Bennett. “In fact, it can't be because you need it. Wind and solar take up so much space that you need it all over the place, and you have to be able to move it around."
Bennett believes there should be more discussion on how many of the lines are needed and how the lines would not be proposed if data centers weren't coming online.
