Entergy Texas has filed an application with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) for approval of Phase I of its comprehensive Texas Future Ready Resiliency Plan to protect the Southeast Texas power grid from extreme weather and improve service reliability.
The investments included in Phase I are expected to help customers by reducing future storm restoration costs by approximately $129 million and minimizing the duration of power outages following significant weather events by 4.5 billion minutes, over the next fifty years, upon receiving approval.
Phase I of the company’s Resiliency Plan is a multiyear proposal including six measures to prevent, withstand, and recover from damage imposed by significant storm events.
· Distribution feeder hardening: Rebuilding main feeder lines to a storm-resilient overhead design standard.
· Lateral hardening: Rebuilding neighborhood distribution lines to a storm-resilient overhead design.
· Transmission rebuild: Replacing poles with higher wind-rated structures and equipment on high-voltage lines.
· Lateral undergrounding: Undergrounding select overhead neighborhood lines.
· Substation control house remediation: Hardening substations by upgrading roofs to meet wind standards.
· Targeted vegetation management: Proactive inspections and trimming to mitigate vegetation-related outages and wildfire risks.
The accelerated hardening projects included in Phase I total a $335 million investment in the Southeast Texas power grid. Entergy Texas plans to seek $198 million in non-ERCOT grants from the Texas Energy Fund to help finance these projects and minimize the impact on monthly customer bills.
The company has also applied for federal dollars under the Department of Energy’s Grid Innovation and Resilience Partnerships program to invest more than $107 million to strengthen the Port Arthur grid, a portion of which would offset the cost of hardening projects included in Phase I. It also plans to study an expedited storm securitization process, which is expected to save customer expenditures over the long term as compared to traditional financing methods.
The accelerated resiliency efforts proposed in Entergy Texas’ Resiliency Plan are a key component of the company’s Southeast Texas Energy Plan, also known as the STEP Ahead plan. This strategic initiative aims to add 1,600 MW of generation capacity to the Southeast Texas power grid by 2028 with affordable rates, building more generation, investing in a diverse mix of generation resources, and strengthening the grid to withstand extreme weather.
