By Tom Kleckner

AUSTIN, Texas — ERCOT’s Board of Directors on Tuesday approved the Far West Texas transmission project, which will result in the construction of two 345-kV lines southwest of Odessa, Texas.

The project would have received unanimous approval but for the abstention of American Electric Power, which will build the project, along with Oncor and Lower Colorado River Authority Transmission. The ISO’s Technical Advisory Committee unanimously approved the project in May. (See “Far West Texas Project Gets TAC’s OK,” ERCOT Technical Advisory Committee Briefs.)

The $336 million project is designed to address the region’s continued load growth, which has averaged 8% since 2010. Increased oil and natural gas exploration in the Permian Basin and a jump in generation projects — mostly solar — are behind the numbers. ERCOT said peak electricity demand in the area has jumped from 22 MW in 2010 to more than 200 MW in 2016 and is projected to exceed 500 MW by 2021.

“We continue to see a tremendous amount of load growth in West Texas,” said Jeff Billo, ERCOT’s senior manager of transmission planning.

One 85-mile line would run between the Riverton and Moss switching stations, with a second circuit added to the existing 16-mile 345-kV line between Moss and the Odessa line. A second 68-mile 345-kV line will connect the Solstice and Bakersfield substations.

The project is expected to be completed within five years, pending approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

Oncor and AEP initially proposed the project to ERCOT’s Regional Planning Group in April 2016. Staff reviewed 40 different alternatives and lowered the cost to $336 million after settling on the most cost-effective of four options: two separate double-circuit 345-kV lines — each with one circuit in place, substation expansions and other transmission elements. ERCOT concluded the upgrades “meet the reliability criteria in the most cost-effective manner and have multiple expansion paths to accommodate future load growth.”