The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced it will put $360 million toward a project to create a new link between the Texas power grid, which operates independently from its neighbors, and other grids in the Southeast.
Energy experts say such interconnections would reduce the risk of big blackouts and potentially drive down the cost of energy, but the project has a ways to go before it becomes a reality.
Despite what it may sound like, the interconnection proposed by Pattern Energy's Southern Spirit Transmission line would not fully unite the Texas grid, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, with neighboring grids.
Instead, it would create something akin to a transmission drawbridge. When lowered, it would allow enough electricity to flow back and forth to power about three-quarters of a million homes.
This could come in handy if extreme weather drives up demand or knocks out power generation on one side of that energy bridge.
The project, “will enhance reliability and prevent outages during extreme weather events, like Winter Storm Uri” the Department of Energy wrote when it announced its investment through the the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
It's been decades since such a connection was built between Texas and its neighbors. If it’s completed, advocates say the Southern Spirit Transmission could also help decarbonize the grid, by bringing more inexpensive renewable energy from Texas into neighboring states.
But the project has faced roadblocks.
For one, many landowners in Louisiana oppose the project's use of eminent domain. Louisiana lawmakers have even forbid Pattern Energy, the company that wants to build the project, from using eminent domain in the state.
Utilities in Louisiana and Mississippi also fear the competition the new transmission line could mean in their states energy markets, and have made moves to block the project.
Here in Texas, four similar interconnections already exist that allow limited amounts of energy to cross state lines. These DC — or direct current — ties are different from more robust interconnections that most states share.
Texas state officials have long opposed those connections, known as “synchronized” connections, as they would lead to greater federal oversight of the state’s power grid.
“While the Southern Spirit Transmission line would cross multiple state lines, the Texas grid will remain independent from the national grid and would not be subject to any federal oversight,” said Texas Public Utility Commission Chairman Thomas Gleeson in a statement after the federal grant was announced.
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