Update from Friends of the San Saba (FOSS)

Update from Friends of the San Saba (FOSS) 

The Oncor and LCRA TSC Bell County East to Big Hill 765kV transmission line (BCE) Hearing on the Merits was held in Austin last week from Monday, June 8th to Friday, June 12th. The Hearing included 819 Intervenors, which was 38% more than the combined 594 Intervenors that participated in the Oncor Dinosaur to Longshore and AEP/CPS Howard Solstice 765kV Hearings.

BCE was the most complex hearing out of the five Permian Basin 765kV transmission line cases. The volume of direct testimony and discovery is significantly higher in the BCE case compared to Dinosaur to Longshore, the second largest 765kV case. Over 700 filings of direct testimony were submitted in the BCE case consisting of 38,600 pages. By comparison, the Dinosaur case had 500 direct testimony filings consisting of almost 9,600 pages. In the BCE case, there were 133 Request for Information (RFI) Discovery filings submitted consisting of over 2,300 questions. This compares to 41 RFI filings in the Dinosaur case consisting of 825 questions.

All witnesses' direct and rebuttal testimony was filed in written form in May. The hearing did not reveal anything materially different from the filed direct or rebuttal testimony or RFI responses. The BCE Hearing consisted of the following cross-examination testimony:

• One panel consisting of eight Oncor & LCRA TSC witnesses were cross-examined for the first two days.

• The PUC Staff Engineer assigned to BCE was cross-examined for one day.

• Designated Intervenor witnesses, including landowners and experts, were cross-examined for the last two days.

The ALJ's were concerned there were too many designated witnesses to complete the cross-examination in five days. Each cross-examiner was limited to 13 minutes of cross-examination for the Applicant witness panel, 7 minutes for the PUC Staff Engineer and 3 minutes for the Intervenor witnesses. Attorneys representing multiple Intervenors were only allowed one cross-examination limited to the same number of minutes for all of their clients.

The PUC Staff Engineer (PUC Staff) was the only PUC representative that testified in the Hearing. The PUC Staff agreed that the need and benefit for the BCE 765kV transmission line is in West Texas (i.e. the Permian Basin). He also agreed there would be a lack of service improvement and a probable increase in consumer cost to impacted landowners in the BCE study area. Finally, the PUC Staff acknowledged that all ratepayers in the ERCOT system would most likely pay for the BCE 765kV transmission line.

Alternative Routes

Seventy percent to 80% of the cross-examination testimony focused on alternative route links and alternative routes. Intervenors raised many significant concerns about route links that crossed and impacted their property and community.

The Applicants recommended Route 894 as the route they believe best meets the requirements of Texas state law set forth in PURA§ 37.056(c)(4)(A)-(D) and 16 TAC § 25.101 (referred to as the 'best meets' route). Route 894 passes through central San Saba, McCulloch, Menard and Schleicher counties.

Oncor's routing memorandum generally discusses the process they followed to develop the 171 alternative route links, five geographic corridors containing 1246 possible routes, and 122 selected alternative routes. Oncor said they 'holistically' analyzed the 122 alternative routes and decided that Route 894 was the 'best meets' route. The routing memorandum does not specifically explain Oncor's 'holistic' routing methodology. The memorandum identifies 17 environmental factors, describes the ranges for those factors and identifies how Route 894's factors fit within these ranges. But the memorandum does not explain how Oncor 'holistically' evaluated these 17 environmental factors to reach the conclusion that Route 894 was the 'best meets' route.

The Oncor witnesses were asked during the Hearing to explain their 'holistic' routing methodology, but the Oncor witnesses did not provide an adequate explanation. Accordingly, Oncor's 'holistic' routing methodology is not documented, not validated and not verifiable. Rather it is a mysterious, opaque black box that Oncor and LCRA TSC cannot or will not explain.

The PUC engineer assigned to the BCE case recommended a different 'best meets' route called Route 487. Route 487 uses many of the same route links as Route 894, except that it runs next to the north boundary of Colorado Bend State Park and it takes a southwest detour in west McCulloch County and Menard County before returning northwest to the same route links used by Route 894. Other Intervenors and their experts recommended other 'best meets' routes in the northern and southern part of the Study Area.

The ALJs will recommend the 'best meets' route to the PUC, and the PUC will make the final decision on the BCE 765kV transmission line route by September 22, 2026, which is the 180-day decision deadline required by state law.

For an update from Judge Jody Fauley on his testimony at the Hearing on Merits, see Update from Judge Jody Fauley