The Federal Electric Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.’s (Brazos’) request to provide interconnection with Brazos’ proposed
transmission line. FERC also granted Brazos’ request to provide transmission services for power flows into and out of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) over Brazos’ proposed transmission line.
The transmission grid administered by the ERCOT independent system operator is located solely within the state of Texas and is not synchronously interconnected to the
Western or Eastern Interconnections. Currently, the ERCOT grid is asynchronously interconnected with the grid operated by Southwest Power Pool (SPP) in the Eastern
Interconnection through two high-voltage DC interconnections, the North and East
Interconnections (HVDC Interconnections). The Brazos’ proposal would create the third such high voltage DC interconnection allowing electric power flow between the ERCOT grid and the Eastern Interconnection.
Brazos is a Texas generation and transmission cooperative whose 17 member cooperatives provide service to approximately 1,000,000 retail customers in Texas. Brazos serves the full electric energy requirements of its 17 member cooperatives in Texas. Brazos also sells electric energy to two municipal electric wholesale customers in Texas. Brazos, along with Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (Western Farmers), plans to construct and jointly own Hugo Unit 2, a 750 MW coal-fired electric-generating facility to be located near the City of Hugo, OK. In general, Brazos wants to use its 375 MW share of Hugo Unit 2 to serve its wholesale load obligations within the ERCOT grid.
To accommodate deliveries from Hugo Unit 2 into ERCOT, Brazos plans to build a 70-mile double-circuit alternating current 345-kV transmission line from Hugo Unit 2 across portions of Oklahoma and into Texas. Hugo Unit 2 will be synchronized through the AC transmission line with the ERCOT Interconnection. To accommodate deliveries from Hugo Unit 2 into Oklahoma, Brazos also proposes to build a high-voltage 375 MW capacity direct current tie (Brazos DC Tie) that will provide an asynchronous interconnection between Hugo Unit 2 and SPP in the Eastern Interconnection. When completed, the AC transmission line and the Brazos DC Tie will permit up to 1,125 MWs (750 MWs from Hugo Unit 2 and 375 MWs from SPP over the Brazos DC Tie) to flow into the ERCOT grid or up to 375 MWs to flow from the ERCOT grid over the Brazos DC Tie and into the SPP grid. Although the Brazos DC Tie and the AC Transmission Line will permit the dispatch of electric energy between two asynchronous markets, the ERCOT grid and SPP grid will at no time be synchronously interconnected.
