The Biden administration said Thursday it will channel millions of dollars toward building an electricity transmission line connecting Texas’ isolated power grid with the southeastern U.S.
The Department of Energy said it will provide $360 million to help build the Southern Spirit line, which would connect Texas to Mississippi.
The line would allow 3,000 megawatts of electricity to flow to and from the Texas grid — enough to power 750,000 homes. It would be the first interconnection added to Texas’ stand-alone power grid in decades.
Texas’ power grid has faced scrutiny since blackouts from the 2021 winter storm left more than 200 Texans dead. Many politicians have called for the grid to connect with the larger U.S. power grid, which Texas has resisted in part to avoid federal oversight.
The Energy Department said in a news release that the Southern Spirit project is part of a larger $1.5 billion investment in the nation’s electric transmission infrastructure. The total estimated cost of the Southern Spirit project is $2.6 billion.
“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to bolstering our power grid to improve the everyday life of Americans through affordable power, fewer blackouts, more reliable power, and additional jobs across our country,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk said.
The Southern Spirit project wouldn’t trigger federal oversight of the Texas electric grid, which is managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, through a provision pertaining to interstate power connections managed by municipal utilities — in this case, Garland’s city-owned utility Garland Power & Light.
The high-voltage line could provide power to Texas during an emergency. However, it would deliver roughly 3.5% of electricity needed statewide during peak power usage.
Texas power companies would also be able to buy and sell electricity to states in the Southeast.
The project, in the works since 2011, was most recently held up after lawmakers in Louisiana approved a bill prohibiting Southern Spirit’s developer, Pattern Energy, from seizing land for the project through eminent domain. But it got a jump-start in August when Louisiana power regulators ruled the project was in the public interest.
The project faced opposition because the power line traversing Louisiana won’t connect with electrical substations in the state. It would, however, provide electricity to Louisiana residents through the state’s larger multistate power grid.
The Texas power grid has four other outside connections, but the Southern Spirit transmission line would nearly triple their combined capacity.
Adam Renz, Pattern Energy’s director of project development, said the company has acquired about half the land needed to build the project.
“The Department of Energy’s vetting and selection of Southern Spirit demonstrates the quality of the Project and its value to the American grid,” Renz said in an email.
In a February filing with Texas power regulators, the company said projects like Southern Spirit would shore up ERCOT’s resiliency and could be used to bring the state’s power grid back online if it went dark.
“ERCOT’s long-standing practice of ignoring imports over Direct Current (DC) ties in its planning studies is no longer defensible in the post-Uri world,” the company said, referring to 2021′s deadly Winter Storm Uri.
Ed Hirs, a University of Houston fellow who teaches energy economics, said the Southern Spirit line should be considered akin to a new power plant.
“This is going to be treated like another generator,” Hirs said. “They could have spent the $2 billion locally and built a power plant and contributed to jobs in Texas, tax base in Texas. Instead, we are going to be sending a whole pot of money to Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Irony abounds.”
