Growth sparks power lines plan in county

Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette

It might be a good ways down the road, but the Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative is positioning to light the way for many newcomers to an area of Guadalupe County.

The cooperative has plans to build a substation and erect transmission lines in the area of Bolton and Santa Clara roads, a spokeswoman said. GVEC is developing the project in anticipation of continued growth in the county, especially in the area of the AW Texas facility under construction, said Tammy Thompson, GVEC senior executive manager of business and brand development.

“As we have seen in the past, GVEC is expecting rapid growth in the project area as a result of the newly created access to water and wastewater infrastructure currently in progress to support the AW Texas facility,” she said. “The offering of thousands of jobs by AW Texas, access to the new infrastructure, and close proximity to the metropolitan areas of San Antonio, Houston and Austin is anticipated to stimulate both residential and commercial electric load in this area.”

GVEC on Sept. 24 filed a certificate of convenience and necessity with the Public Utility Commission of Texas for the project, Thompson said. The PUC has the authority to review, challenge, change and approve the project as well as select and approve the route transmission lines will take.

GVEC proposed to build an electricity substation off of Bolton Road west of Santa Clara Road, Thompson said. The cooperative has suggested several tap points off an existing transmission line that runs parallel to Farm-to-Market Road 78, but the PUC will make the final decision on the route, she said.

“The purpose of the project is to improve reliability of GVEC’s electric transmission system to meet the region’s growing demand for electric power,” Thompson said. “It will be several months before the PUC will finalize a route based on the information that was provided by GVEC and any feedback that will be received from the surrounding landowners.”

GVEC began communicating with landowners in June, and met with them July 1 at the utility’s Western Operations Center, Thompson said. People were invited to ask questions, express concerns and make suggestions about the project, she said.

Ongoing meetings continue with landowners who have additional questions and concerns, Thompson said.

“In addition to the meeting, all affected landowners were sent packets notifying them of the filing of this project with specific instructions on how to intervene or be a protester and the deadline to do so,” she said. “We have also had staff meeting with landowners at our office to provide them access to large maps they can review before they make a decision on if and how they want to be involved in the PUC process.”

The substation portion of the project is expected to cost about $8.9 million. Construction of a 138 kilovolt transmission line is expected to run between about $8.2 million and $13.8 million, making the range of the entire project — known as the Santa Clara Transmission Line project — about $17.2 million - $22.7 million.

A legal ad GVEC posted in The Seguin Gazette listed the costs and other details about the project.

“The only way to fully participate in the PUC’s decision on where to locate the transmission line is to intervene in the docket,” it read. “It is important for an affected person to intervene because the utility is not obligated to keep affected persons informed of the PUC’s proceedings and cannot predict which route may or may not be approved by the PUC.”

Those who wish to participate as intervenors should notify the PUC before a Nov. 9, 2020, deadline, according to the ad. To intervene, send the PUC a letter requesting intervention.

Mail the request for intervention and 10 copies of the request to Public Utility Commission of Texas, Central Records, Attn: Filing Clerk at 1701 N. Congress Ave., P.O. Box 13326, Austin, TX, 78711-3326.

“Persons who wish to intervene in the docket must also mail a copy of their request to all parties in the docket and all persons that have pending motions to intervene, at or before the time the request for intervention is mailed to the PUC,” the legal advertisement read. “In addition to the intervention deadline, other important deadlines may already exist that affect your participation in this docket.

“You should review the orders and other filings already made in the docket. The brochure entitled ‘Landowner and Transmission Line Cases at the PUC’ explains how you can access these filings.”

Copies of the brochure providing basic information is online at www.puc.texas.gov .

Dalondo Moultrie is the assistant managing editor of the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail him at dalondo.moultrie@seguingazette.com

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