Approximately 150 owners of land in and near Greenville in Hunt County, Texas will receive notice the City of Garland proposes to build a Greenville transmission line that may affect their land. The Public Utility Commission of Texas will consider the application in Docket No. 47379. Not all landowners who receive notice will be affected by the proposed transmission line. Click here to view or download the application.
Garland’s application states it is proposing to construct a new single-circuit 138-kilovolt (kV) transmission line in Hunt County on primarily double-circuit capable steel or concrete single-pole structures. The line will extend from the expansion of the Dent Road Substation (the expansion to be owned and operated by Garland), generally to the northwest, until it reaches the existing Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA) Shelby Substation.
Pole Structures
Garland will use steel or concrete monopole structures for this project. The primary reasons Garland selected self-supporting steel or concrete single pole structures are the reduced structure footprint, the availability of steel and concrete in necessary lengths, and the strength of steel and concrete poles to be able to support the loads required for the project. Garland will directly embed into the ground typical tangent structures, which will require the total structure length to exceed the above-ground height.
Garland states a steel or concrete single-pole structure will have a smaller footprint than a comparable multi-pole or multi-legged structure such as an H-frame or lattice tower. The reduced footprint makes maintenance of the area around the structure, such as mowing and weeding, easier to perform. Garland can design the concrete and steel structures to perform better than wood under extreme weather conditions. It will design the structures to meet and exceed code requirements for various wind and ice load cases. Garland claims single pole wood structures would not be able to support two circuits of conductor at 800-foot spans for the load cases required in the project area.
Right-of-Way
Garland’s application states the typical right-of-way for the project will be 120 feet wide.
Estimated Schedule
The PUC’s rules require the Commission to approve or reject the application one year from the filing date of July 21, 2017. Garland estimates right-of-way land acquisition will start in July 2018. Garland estimates construction will begin in May 2019. The facilities will be energized in October 2019.
Project Need
Garland’s application states the Project is needed to ensure system reliability in the Greenville, Texas area.
ERCOT Review
The project is one component of the Greenville Area Project ERCOT evaluated and accepted in February 2016, to address system reliability issues in the Greenville area.
ERCOT’s recommendations included the following: (1) expand the existing Dent Road 69-kV substation to allow a new 138-kV ring bus configuration and adding a 138/69-kV 150MVA (55° rise) autotransformer; (2) expand the Shelby substation to allow an additional 138-kV transmission line; (3) expand the Wieland substation to allow an additional 138-kV transmission line; (4) build a new 138-kV line interconnecting Shelby substation to the expanded Dent Road substation – approximately 3.5 miles; and (5) build a new 138-kV line between the expanded Dent Road substation and Wieland substation – approximately 5 miles. Based on the historical and projected load growth in this area of 1% to 2%, Garland is recommending that double circuit construction be provided for future load growth expansion. This report is posted on the ERCOT web site as “ERCOT Independent Review of the Greenville Area Project.”
For its role in the Greenville Area Project, Garland will build components 1, 2 and 4 above at the request of GEUS (owner of the existing Dent Road substation) and TMPA (owner of the existing Shelby substation). Garland will construct: the associated Dent Road 138-kV Expansion, including the 138/69-kV transformer
and 138-kV breaker position for the 138-kV Wieland Switch transmission line; the 138-kV breaker position at the Shelby substation; and the new Dent Road Expansion to Shelby 138-kV transmission line.
Burns & McDonnell Routing Study
Garland retained Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc. (Burns & McDonnell) to prepare an environmental assessment and alternative routing analysis (EA) included as Attachment 1 of the application. The EA presents the analysis Burns & McDonnell conducted and the land use and environmental data for all the alternative routes considered for this Project.
Identification of the route Garland finds best meets the Commission’s routing criteria
Garland considered the certification criteria in PURA and the P.U.C. Substantive Rules, input from the public, and the environmental and land use recommendation of its routing consultant, Burns & McDonnell. Garland also evaluated each primary alternative route from an engineering, design, construction, operations, and maintenance perspective, and considered the estimated cost for each of the primary alternative routes. Garland determined Route J provides the best balance of routing characteristics and best addresses the requirements of PURA and P.U.C. Substantive Rules.
Will the PUC approve Route J?
Garland identified several alternative routes for the PUC’s consideration. The PUC decides which route to use for the transmission line. The Commission may or may not approve Route J. The Commission can approve any proposed route or any combination of properly-noticed proposed segments.
What can a landowner do?
The only way to fully participate in the PUC’s decision on where to locate the transmission line is to intervene. The notice materials landowners will receive include a brochure from the PUC that discusses how to intervene. The brochure also is available here. Landowners who intervene may provide information the Commission needs to reach a final decision.
Intervention deadline
The Garland notice to landowners states the deadline to intervene in the docket is September 5, 2017.
Transmission Line Lawyer Brad Bayliff
For more information about transmission line lawyer Brad Bayliff, please click here.