Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) and 21 other members of Congress have requested that the Department of Energy establish more transfer capability between the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and its neighbors through the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC) designation process.
A letter from the representatives includes an additional and new strategy from Casar and his colleagues to address the perceived "lack of electric interconnection and electric reliability in Texas."
The DOE is working to designate geographic areas as NIETCs on finding that consumers are affected by a lack of electric transmission in the area. The preliminary list of potential NIETCs, released on May 8, 2024, avoids the Texas power grid, operated by ERCOT.
The DOE designating NIETC corridors into ERCOT or nearby ERCOT will help unlock $4.5 billion in federal financing to build electric transmission in and around the state, according to the letter.
The letter mentioned existing projects for interconnection like the Southern Spirit Transmission line, which will help consumers and start interconnecting Texas, but alone is not capable to address the transmission requirements for the state.
In February 2024, Casar introduced the Connect the Grid Act to require interconnection between ERCOT and its neighbors. According to the June 2024 MIT study, interconnection could have prevented almost all of the blackouts ordered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) during Winter Storm Uri.
