New Line Boosts Area's Electricity as State Prepares for Deregulation

By Dan Piller
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Tue, 15 May 2001

Dallas – Managers of Texas' electricity grid say the state is ready for the beginning of residential deregulation June 1, now that an 88-mile transmission line has been opened from a generating station in Limestone County to the Metroplex power grid.

"We've doubled the grid capacity into the DFW metropolitan area with this new line," said Sam Jones, chief operating officer for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which oversees electricity transmission to about 85 percent of the state.

The 345-kilovolt Limestone-Watermill line - switched on during a Monday ceremony - links a generator east of Waco to TXU's Watermill switching station near Balch Springs. It is an important element in fixing what was a looming problem: getting surplus electricity from other parts of the state into the power-hungry North Texas area.

"The peak demand for power has grown tremendously in recent years, and this is an important response," said Tom Noel, chief executive of ERCOT, a not-for-profit cooperative of Texas' electricity providers. ERCOT, based in Austin, oversees the scheduling and switching of electricity over 37,000 miles of transmission lines throughout the state.

Of immediate concern was the beginning of an electricity deregulation pilot program beginning June 1. Under the program, up to 5 percent of Texas' residential users (except those in Austin and San Antonio, which are not part of the ERCOT grid) could switch from their regulated monopoly utilities to one of several other providers who have offered service.

The pilot program is preparatory to full deregulation beginning Jan. 1. Officials have indicated that although Texas has enough electrical generating capacity to avoid California-style blackouts as it begins deregulation, that tight transmissions constraints were causing worries.

The transmission problems would be at their most severe in the hottest summer months, when round-the-clock air conditioning use in Texas forces generators and transmission systems to handle peak loads.

For that reason TXU, spurred on by ERCOT and the Texas Public Utilities Commission, finished the $70 million Limestone-Watermill line a year early. It will double the former capacity of 2,000 megavolts that can be shipped into the Metroplex grid.

"Deregulation means more scheduling of electricity and being able to move it around," ERCOT's Jones said. "We're pretty sure that if we have the capacity to handle the deregulation pilot program, we'll be able to handle full deregulation next January."

Partially because of the well-documented problems with deregulation in California, Texans have been slow to take the various offers to switch power companies for the pilot program. By law, up to 5 percent of the state's residential users can switch from their utility (in Tarrant County's case, TXU) to another provider.

Weekly figures released by ERCOT show that at mid-May, 90,636 customers in TXU's service territory that includes the Metroplex, East Texas and the area west of Fort Worth to Midland, have switched to another provider for the pilot program. That represents 17.6 percent of the 5 percent total.

In Reliant Energy's service area in Houston, slightly less than half of the 5 percent total, or 60,106 customers, have signed up to switch. Utility executives have attributed the sluggishness in switching to fears of California-style blackouts and other problems.

"It's probably better that the early pilot program will have only a small number of participants, so we can better ease into the new scheduling systems that we will have to use to move power around," Jones said.

TXU and ERCOT officials were too polite at Monday's ceremony to chortle at Texas' expected 18 percent surplus of electrical generating capacity this summer while California expects blackout-causing deficits. But U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, didn't shy from the comparison.

Barton noted that just seven months were needed in 1998 to get the permits for construction of the Limestone-Watermill transmission line. Other states might have taken years to approve a similar project, Barton said.

"California didn't specifically set out to be anti-growth, but that is what has happened," Barton said.

Texas' policy of allowing aggressive generator and transmission line building is expected to give the state surplus capacity this summer.

But Texas can't share its good fortune with other states. The ERCOT system is entirely within the state. And because it is not shared with regional systems, such as those serving California, New York and other states, ERCOT is not expected to be able to ship any of its surplus to electricity-starved areas this summer.

Even so, the Limestone-Watermill transmission line will make the job of TXU dispatchers such as Jerry Lewallen easier. Lewallen dispatches power to Fort Worth and points west. As he sat at his computer terminal Monday before the ceremony, he said: "The new line will make my job easier. When there's more power coming into the local grid, there is more flexibility with what you can do with it."

The extra juice that comes into the Metroplex grid will enable TXU to more easily manage around maintenance and damage and still keep power flowing, Lewallen said.

Dan Piller (817)390-7719
danpil@star-telegram.com