Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
When the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 7 in 1999, signed by then Governor George
W. Bush, they simultaneously deregulated the electricity industry and established Texas'
first Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). This first RPS targeted 2,000 MW of installed
renewable capacity by 2009.
Given the area's excellent wind resources, much of the initial wind was sited in windy
yet remote West Texas. As wind power generation ramped up, it became clear that the
existing transmission infrastructure was insufficient. Transmission congestion became a
critical bottleneck limiting future wind development. Unlike other areas of the United
States, the Texas electric grid is isolated from other states; there are no synchronous
connections between ERCOT and other regional grids. This islanded system means that
FERC does not have jurisdiction over the territory because there are no interstate
connections. The boundaries and isolation of the Texas electricity grid made the need for
rapid transmission development and more sophisticated grid controls essential, especially
to accommodate periods of high wind. Early on in the Texas wind boom the lack of
transmission-line access forced wind developers to select sites with less favorable wind
resources, but with available transmission capacity. In Texas, the users of the electricity
- or “load,” in utility speak - to be transmitted through new lines pay for transmission
system upgrades, but in the past the company developing the generation resource (such
as a large-scale coal plant) would have sufficient collateral to secure financing for the
construction of the new transmission lines. Many of the smaller wind companies did
not have the financial resources to finance hundreds of miles of new transmission lines
to connect remote wind sites to population centers, so transmission congestion rapidly
emerged as a major bottleneck.
6.4.2 Turbines to Transmission: Texas Competitive Renewable
Energy Zones
In an attempt to reduce this bottleneck to wind development, the Texas Legislature passed
Senate Bill 20 in 2005, which required the PUCT to establish Competitive Renewable
Energy Zones (CREZ) to help coordinate transmission planning and wind power
development (Lasher 2008 ). The goal of this legislation was to promote wind development
by solving the “chicken or egg problem,” by first identifying the areas with the most
promising wind resources and then supporting the planning and construction of new
transmission projects to service those areas. ERCOT worked with the company AWS
Truewind to identify twenty-five wind zones and then planned the necessary transmission
lines to link the wind resources to the ERCOT grid and load centers like Dallas. ERCOT
modeled the effects of the new wind zones and transmission lines to estimate the effects of
these additions on system reliability, operations, and costs.
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