Texas regulators have selected the first four projects eligible for more than $240 million in grants outside the ERCOT region as part of the state’s Texas Energy Fund. 

The Public Utility Commission approved staff’s recommendation during its Aug. 21 open meeting. It gave Executive Director Connie Corona authority to approve the applications and enter into grant agreements, contingent upon a final review (58492). 

The four projects under the TEF’s Outside ERCOT Grant Program (OEGP) include two from North Plains Electric Cooperative (NPEC) and one from Southwestern Electric Power Co. SWEPCO’s $200 million proposal to replace 700 miles of aging copper wire and utility poles in northeastern Texas hits the program’s cap. 

The other approved projects are: 

• • $20.4 million to NPEC for a 115-kV transmission loop in five northeastern Texas counties. 
  • $1.9 million to the cooperative to expand its Ochiltree Interchange, increasing service capacity in its northeastern and Panhandle regions. 
  • $17.7 million to El Paso Electric to deploy a continuous online monitoring project that will provide real-time analytics to improve generation availability and operational resilience. 

“While it’s critically important to add more power to the electric grids that serve Texas, we must also do everything we can to enhance and strengthen the systems we have in place, and that’s what these four projects will do,” PUC Chair Thomas Gleeson said in a statement. 

The Outside ERCOT program is one of four under the TEF. It has been allotted $1 billion by Texas lawmakers. To be eligible for awards, projects must modernize infrastructure, improve weatherization, make reliability and resiliency improvements, or address vegetation management. 

PUC staff said the program has received more than a dozen applications, representing almost 50 separate projects and totaling $1.5 billion, since it was launched in May. An additional 35 applications have been started but not yet submitted. 

Grants are contingent on OEGP funding availability, mutual agreement to the terms and conditions in their respective grant agreement, and their adherence to the terms and conditions set forth in their respective grant agreements. The PUC will enter into grant agreements with applicants for selected eligible projects until the program’s funds are exhausted. 

The commission already has granted two loans under the TEF’s centerpiece, the in-ERCOT program created to build dispatchable generation. The program is allocated half of the TEF’s $10 billion funds. (See NRG Energy Secures $216M Loan from TEF.) 

CenterPoint Resiliency Plan Approved

The PUC approved a modified version of CenterPoint Energy’s $3.18 billion system resiliency plan, directing the utility to defer $217 million in cost recovery until 2029 for several resiliency measures related to strategic undergrounding, distribution pole replacements and vegetation management (57579). 

CenterPoint originally proposed a $5.75 billion resiliency plan. However, it reached a settlement with commission staff, the Office of Public Utility Counsel, several Houston-area cities and other intervenors that reduced the plan’s costs. 

A new state law requires Texas utilities to file annual resiliency plans. CenterPoint drew anger from residents and politicians last year after Hurricane Beryl left 2.2 million of its customers without power. 

The commission also: 

• • Approved an amended rule that removes the exemption currently preventing a generation company controlling less than 5% of ERCOT’s total installed capacity from being considered to have market power (58379). 
  • Agreed with staff’s recommendation to hold two workshops Sept. 2. The morning workshop will involve a rulemaking for net metering arrangements for large loads co-located with an existing generation resource. The afternoon workshop will take on a rulemaking that establishes large-load forecasting criteria.