Oncor, a Dallas-based utility, has held a series of landowner meetings along approved routes for Texas's planned 765-kilovolt transmission lines. One of the routes, Dinosaur Switch to Longshore Switch, runs through Erath County. The Public Utilities Commission of Texas approved three of five proposed routes, including that one.
An Oncor spokesperson, Roxana Rubio, said the company held the meetings because of the scale of the projects, the number of potentially affected landowners and the area involved. An Oncor spokesperson estimated about 800 landowners could be affected along the Dinosaur-Longshore and Longshore-Drill Hole routes. Oncor has held nine meetings in a little more than two weeks, starting Oct. 12 in Kermit.
The meetings covered easement acquisition, route details and construction. Landowners can submit route modification requests, which Oncor said will be considered along with regulatory, engineering, reliability and safety requirements.
ERCOT, the state's electric grid operator, has said the lines are a necessary upgrade to prevent power outages. Opponents have questioned whether the projects are needed, asked whether options such as on-site generation could work instead, and said the process has been rushed and gives landowners little say.