The Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) transmission lines are a response to a directive by the Texas Legislature passed in 2005. To reach the renewable energy goals set by the Legislature and support the growing wind industry in Texas, the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) created a plan to identify areas with potential wind capacity, the CREZ, and build a ...
The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on how Texas is learning to manage wind energy, what he's learned by monitoring his own electricity consumption at home and how his agency has changed in the decade since Enron's downfall.
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Workers are stringing thousands of miles of wires across Texas to aid the wind-power boom, despite lingering controversy — and an estimated cost of $6.8 billion. West Texas businesses have found a niche providing for workers.
Full StoryThe chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission on how close Texas came to rolling blackouts this summer, what consumers can expect to pay as wind-power transmission expands, and how the historic drought affects the reliability of the power grid.
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The cost of building several thousand miles of transmission lines to carry wind power across Texas is now estimated at $6.79 billion, a 38 percent increase from the initial projection three years ago.
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At the heart of Texas' wind-power boom lies a conundrum: Plenty of ranchers are eager to host wind turbines but few want to allow the unsightly high-voltage transmission lines needed to carry the power to distant cities. But state regulators are moving forward — and yesterday they approved a contentious project that runs through the Hill Country.
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The Public Utility Commission will cancel plans to build one controversial wind-power transmission line, as well as a segment of a second — to Hill Country landowners' undoubted relief.
Full StoryThere are no viable substitutes for the longest segment of a controversial proposed transmission line through the Hill Country, the state grid operator reported today.
Full StoryDespite opposition from Hill Country landowners, the Texas Public Utility Commission declined to throw out one of the proposed wind-power transmission lines through Hill Country during an open meeting this morning.
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This week, the Tribune put together a three-part series exploring the state's $5 billion transmission-line build-out to support wind power, which is mostly generated in West Texas but needs to be shipped to cities in Central and East Texas. The project is known as CREZ, short for Competitive Renewable Energy Zones.
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While West Texas has become the nation's wind-power hub, the Panhandle's ferocious winds go largely untapped. That could change with a slew of proposed transmission line projects that could, in turn, enable forests of turbines — if landowners can be soothed. Part three of a three-part series.
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The epicenter of the fight over the state's wind power transmission lines is the Hill Country, where landowners are spending lots of money and time to keep the lines from being built. They're trotting out every conceivable argument, and they may just succeed. Part two of a three-part series.
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Texas already harvests more wind power than any state in the nation, bringing the promise of clean energy to millions of homes and businesses. Trouble is, getting that power from remote, windy West Texas to the big cities requires a massive, $5 billion network of transmission lines — which property owners in the Hill County and elsewhere don't want in their back yards. As construction gets under way on the new lines, an army of lawyers and angry landowners is working to stymie the state's renewable energy plans. Part one of a three-part series.
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Texas has always operated its own electricity grid, separate from the two other grids that span the rest of the nation. But a project quietly emerging in eastern New Mexico could curb that independence — and affect energy prices here in ways that remain much in dispute.
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