The Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. (ERCOT) has filed a transmission study with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) that provides transmission plans for four scenarios of wind generation in Texas that range from 12,000 MW to 24,000 MW. The PUCT, which issued an interim order last summer designating competitive renewable energy zones in five areas of the Texas panhandle and west Texas, directed ERCOT to perform optimization and reliability studies and recommend a transmission plan for four different levels of wind capacity from the designated zones.
The transmission optimization study evaluated a variety of transmission solutions and hundreds of individual plans, using three overarching criteria, including system reliability, sufficient transfer capacity, and costs-to-benefits.
According to the study, the estimated costs, excluding collection costs, of the transmission proposals range from $2.95 billion to $6.38 billion.
