Power project nears completion

New transmission towers are marching across CameronCounty as construction moves forward on a project that will bring 345-kilovolts worth of new electrical capacity to the LowerRio GrandeValley.

It’s part of the Cross Valley Project, a transmission line running from a substation northwest of Edinburg and connecting to Sharyland Utilities’ new Palmito Substation near the Port of Brownsville.

Sharyland is building the 46-mile CameronCounty portion of the $309 million project and Electric Transmission Texas LLC — a joint venture between subsidiaries of American Electric Power Texas and MidAmerican Energy Holdings — is building the HidalgoCounty portion.

Dallas-based Sharyland is privately owned by Hunter L. Hunt and other members of the Ray L. Hunt family.

The Electrical Reliability Council of Texas in 2011 deemed the project critical to the reliability of ERCOT’s system grid in the LowerValley after rolling outages in February of that year. ERCOT manages the electric grid and the deregulated electricity market that covers roughly 85 percent of the state.

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