Texas regulators urged to halt $33B transmission plan
High-ranking Texas Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. Charles Schwertner, are urging state regulators to halt a $33 billion statewide transmission line build-out. This move, driven by strong opposition from rural landowners, could significantly delay the development of numerous data centers in Texas. Officials are calling for an overhaul of the approval process for long-distance power line projects, citing concerns over land use and the current rapid expansion of the energy grid.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Charles Schwertner have formally requested that the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) reject pending applications for a $33 billion extra-high voltage transmission line build-out across the state. This urgent plea follows a 15-hour Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee hearing where hundreds of rural landowners voiced strong opposition to data center developments and the rapid expansion of power lines.
Officials argue that transmission companies must reconsider their plans and that lawmakers need to reform the approval process for long-distance power line projects. This proposed halt could significantly impede data center developers who rely on these new transmission lines to bring their projects online, potentially jeopardizing Texas's rapid growth in the data center sector. Energy experts, like Joshua Rhodes from the University of Texas, Austin, warn that such a delay could be a "massive wrench" in the state's energy and economic plans, affecting not only data centers but also the massive Permian Basin oil and gas industry.
The transmission plan, which includes the Permian Basin Reliability Plan and the Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP), aims to address growing electricity demand from both data centers and the oil and gas sector. However, the process has drawn ire from landowners, especially due to a 2023 law (HB 5066) that shortened the PUC's approval timeline for projects, giving property owners less time to dispute routes. ERCOT's Chief Operating Officer Woody Rickerson acknowledged that demand forecasts from transmission service providers were "substantially higher" than ERCOT's in-house forecasts, creating conflict with landowner interests.
Despite the PUC having previously delayed a vote on one transmission line in June, the current pushback is intense, with several senators calling for a complete stop until the Legislature can intervene. A prolonged delay in these critical power lines could push back the operational timelines for numerous data center projects, including the 65 gigawatts worth of projects in ERCOT's "Batch Zero" that are slated to receive power allocations soon.