Ratepayers could pay billions for wind-power lines

AUSTIN


Depending on the amount of wind power expected, the proposed plans range from $2.95 billion to $6.38 billion.

Texas already leads the nation in wind power, with almost 5,000 megawatts of existing generation.

More transmission capacity would be needed to move the power from rural West Texas to more populous areas of the state.

“I think the issue continues to be that the development of new wind generation is almost all occurring in West Texas, and it’s happening at a pace faster than transmission can get constructed,” said Mike McCall of Energy Future Holdings during a conference call Tuesday.

AP