Inclement weather is being blamed for preventing a perfect record for
Texas’s competitive renewable energy zone (CREZ) transmission
initiative by delaying a single transmission project in the central CREZ
zone beyond the end-of-2013 target date for the projects’ completion. The sole exception is the final project being built by Wind Energy Transmission Texas’s (WETT).
“There are a few remaining items to complete on Segment 7 (Sand Bluff
to Bearkat) including utility coordination for final connections,”
Wayne Morton, WETT general manager, told TransmissionHub Dec. 31. Construction of the 29-mile line began Nov. 26, 2012, and is expected to be completed “within the next two weeks.” Meanwhile, WETT has completed construction and commissioning of the 37-mile Sand Bluff to Divide line. Both lines had been slated for completion earlier in the year but were delayed by foul weather, Morton said. WETT, the third-largest CREZ developer by budget, was initially
responsible for seven transmission lines and eight associated station
and equipment projects. One equipment project, the Cottonwood capacitor
bank project, was cancelled.
South Texas Electric Cooperative (STEC) completed its final project, the 76-mile Odessa to Bakersfield line,
and turned control of the project over to the Lower Colorado River
Authority (LCRA) for operation “well before Dec. 31,” Holly Gifford,
STEC transmission project coordinator, told TransmissionHub Jan. 2. STEC was initially responsible for three transmission lines, though
the three projects were combined to form the Odessa to Bakersfield line
and the 112-mile Bakersfield to Big Hill line, which was energized Aug. 31.
Oncor Electric Delivery Company energized the 70-mile West Krum to Anna line Dec. 30, an Oncor spokesperson told TransmissionHub Jan. 2. Oncor energized its penultimate project, the 110-mile Clear Crossing to Willow Creek line, on Dec. 18. Construction began on the West Krum to Anna project on Aug. 10, 2012,
and on the Clear Crossing to Willow Creek project on Jan. 21, 2012.
Oncor was responsible for developing 27 transmission lines, the largest
number of any CREZ developer, and had the largest current budget
estimate of $1.9bn for the lines and 37 station and equipment projects. Approved in 2008, the CREZ initiative saw 10 developers take part in
what was designed as a transmission build-out to transport renewable
energy from the wind-rich areas of the Texas Panhandle and West Texas to
the load centers of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and beyond.
The completed CREZ projects will eventually transmit 18,500 MW of wind
energy.
The current estimated cost of the CREZ program, as reflected in the
quarterly progress report issued by the Public Utility Commission of
Texas (PUCT) Oct. 7, is $6.81bn, which represents an increase from the
first revised figure of $6.56bn contained in the April 2011 report, but
below the high of $6.95bn contained in the January 2012 report and a
decline from the $6.82bn estimated in the July quarterly progress
report. There are several reasons for the variations, according to the
report. The original estimate of $4.9bn, which resulted from the CREZ
transmission optimization (CTO) study in 2008, was the outcome of “a
planning exercise to develop multiple transmission plan scenarios from
which to select the most cost effective and optimal scenario for
execution,” according to the report. After the CTO was developed, an
additional 70 projects were added, including three transmission lines
comprising more than 600 miles of new transmission, and 67 associated
facilities.
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