Could ERCOT Connect to the Southeastern U.S. Grids?

Texas has long kept its grid independent, but that could change (image via Getty Images)

Texas has long maintained a stubbornly independent electric grid, unlike the rest of the United States. Most states share power; for example, the Eastern Interconnection operates east of the Rocky Mountains, and the Western Interconnection covers the Pacific Ocean to the Rockies. But The Dallas Morning News reported last week that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is nearing the end of a study into connecting the Texas grid to parts of the Southeastern U.S. grid. Texas is currently exempt from federal regulation due to its independence, but it also misses out on a major benefit of interconnection: shared power from other states in the event of a statewide emergency like 2021's Winter Storm Uri.

Pattern Energy, a private company that owns and operates utility-scale solar and wind facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, has been working for more than a decade with ERCOT to create the Southern Spirit Transmission. The approximately 320-mile transmission line would start at the Texas-Louisiana border and run through Louisiana and into Mississippi, where it would connect with grids in the Southeast. If approved soon, the project could start as early as 2026 and finish by 2029, with right-of-way work being done now.

Key to the political success of the project is that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has confirmed the feds would still have no jurisdiction over ERCOT. But Louisiana and Mississippi regulators must agree, and the proposal is not without controversy. The Louisiana-based Red River Parish Journal reported that during public meetings, where Pattern Energy has asked for support near a stretch of 21 miles where transmission lines would cross the state, residents worried that they wouldn't benefit from the project, as power would flow through, not to, the area. Conversely, a Mississippi utility, Entergy Mississippi, filed testimony in October contending that the project would compete with their gas plants by sending low-cost renewable energy from Texas to Mississippi.

The Texas end has already agreed, however: DMN reported that Garland Power & Light, a utility company northeast of Dallas, announced its participation back in 2011. If the plan is approved, Garland Power & Light will operate a substation on the Texas-Louisiana border, plus 30 miles of transmission lines leading up to it. The project is estimated to cost $2.6 billion, and the Texas Public Utility Commission has ordered ERCOT to present updates every six months.

Energy experts estimate that if this transmission line had been in place during Winter Storm Uri, outages in Texas would have been reduced by about 10%, meaning around 400,000 fewer Texans would have been without power. Plus, Environment Texas' Luke Metzger points out it could be a step toward meeting the Biden administration's goals of a carbon-free grid by 2035 by sharing Texas' wealth of renewables: "A lot of those states – Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia – just don't have the same renewable energy resources that Texas has. So this is a great opportunity, thinking of the national perspective, of decarbonizing the whole country. [And] it boosts resilience, because the Southeast isn't subject to the same kind of cold snaps that we saw during Uri."