The Texas population and economy are growing, and so is the need for a network of power lines and substations to deliver more electricity reliably and economically statewide.

LCRA, through its affiliate, LCRA Transmission Services Corporation, is responding to this need, drawing on its expertise and success in having served wholesale electric customers of Texas for more than 60 years.

LCRA Transmission Services Corporation's network of owned and leased facilities totaling more than 3,700 miles of transmission lines and 300 substations and equipment has provided a vital link between Texas' power plants and the interconnected power grid within Texas. It is part of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) transmission network that serves generators and retail loads in most of Texas.

Unbundling under new law
A 1999 state law changed how LCRA and other electric utilities manage and operate their transmission facilities. The law required utilities to "unbundle," or separate, their electric generation and transmission operations as part of preparations for a deregulated retail electric market. The law also allowed LCRA to expand its transmission facilities and operations beyond its traditional 53-county Central Texas electric service area.

LCRA created LCRA Transmission Services Corporation as a nonprofit affiliate and on Jan. 1, 2002 transferred ownership of its transmission facilities to the affiliate to satisfy the state's unbundling requirement. The affiliate has no employees but contracts with LCRA staff to operate and maintain the facilities and provide other services. As with other transmission systems in Texas, the new affiliate is regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and coordinates its operations with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the power grid that serves most of the state. The Corporation now is helping upgrade and expand the statewide transmission system to ship more power throughout Texas reliably and efficiently.

Fast-paced expansion
LCRA Transmission Services Corporation has embarked on a fast-paced schedule to expand transmission capacity through more than 60 major projects during the next five years.

Some of this work comes in partnerships with utilities such as American Electric Power, the largest generator of electricity in the United States, and Oncor, the unit of TXU Corporation that is the largest electric transmission provider in Texas.

The partnership with AEP will build projects totaling $800 million during the next eight years to add transmission capacity in South and West Texas, areas identified by ERCOT as crucial to support a competitive retail electric market in Texas. (See news release.)

LCRA staff oversees the Corporation's transmission system from a state-of-the-art System Operations Control Center (SOCC). The center operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, using a variety of sophisticated computer and communication networks to prevent or minimize interruptions in electric service.

For more information about LCRA's transmission operations, call 1-800-776-5272, Ext. 6270, or e-mail Transmission.