North American Windpower: GE Working With ETT On Upgrades To Texas Transmission System

by NAW Staff on Friday 21 September 2012

GE says it is working with Electric Transmission Texas LLC, a joint venture between subsidiaries of American Electric Power and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., on upgrades to the Texas transmission system that will allow more wind energy to be transmitted from rural generation facilities to high-demand urban areas.

As a part of the $7 billion Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) initiative, the companies will undertake a series-compensation project. Under the terms of the contract, GE will install eight series-compensation banks at four different facilities owned by ETT in western and central Texas.

For this project, GE will provide series-compensation banks - complete with bypass breakers, relay control houses and battery equipment - to ETT. In addition, GE will provide project management, installation services, training and long-term maintenance support.

“GE’s series-compensation banks will enhance the reliability and throughput of the 345 kV transmission network being built, providing stability to the Texas CREZ system,” explains Robert Turko, general manager of power delivery at GE’s Digital Energy business. “Facilitating the distribution of clean, renewable power into Texas’s electrical grid is essential to meeting ever-increasing energy demands.”

Materials for this project will be shipped throughout the first and second quarters of 2013, and banks will be installed and tested in the second half of the year. Commercial operation is slated to begin between October and November of 2013.

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