The Southern Spirit is the name of a project aimed at creating stronger electrical ties between the Texas electrical grid and power connections to the east of Texas, but at best the project is years away.
After the deadly February 2021 Winter freeze that turned off the lights for many Texans, one of the ways suggested to strengthen the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid was to create more interconnections with out-of-state power companies that could be called upon for electrical power in the event of another lack-of-power emergency.
Objections to more interconnections come largely from people who don't want federal oversight of the connection, which is considered to be interstate commerce and therefore subject to federal laws.
But University of Houston Energy Fellow Ed Hirs says the Southern Spirit plan as presented so far is not really a heavy-duty tie-in with other US grids in which electricity is purchased and imported by transmission lines; the plan calls for utilizing smaller DC, or direct current, lines rather than standard AC, or alternating current, transmission lines.
DC current requires machinery called an inverter to convert it to AC power for use on the electric grid.
Mr. Hirs says it would be more practical for the millions of dollars needed to simply build another natural gas-fueled generator plant that could be turned on when supplies of electricity are running low.
The whole point in setting up the Southern Spirit program is that "Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi need that electricity less than we do, and that we can simply buy it from them at a discount from what it would cost here in Texas," Hirs said.
"And of course the reverse is also true, that they could buy electricity for less money in Texas and sell it for back to those states, but that's really unlikely given the way the markets are structured.
"Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi are all part of a vertically integrated utility system where those generators and utilities build for capacity, they build for reliability.
"That means they typically have extra capacity year-round and lower rates than we have to pay here in Texas."
And the Southern Spirit lines are expected under the current plan to begin construction within three years and to go online by 2031, but at the current rate Texas will need a lot more electricity a lot sooner than that.
That's a problem Texas is having to face as the state legislature gets underway today, Tuesday January 14th, with just a few lawmakers looking closely at making more improvements in the ERCOT grid and its components.
Much more needs to be done, Hirs says, to keep the lights on -- and that much more needs to be very soon.
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