Government
BY JESSICA SHORTEN
Entergy focuses on resilience after Beryl Tom Overbye, director of Texas A&M University’s Smart Grid Center. “A lot of times there isn’t a lot of space between the distribution line, and people’s backyards and front yard, ... so it’s a balancing act.” What’s being done?
Entergy Texas Hurricane Beryl outages
Number of customers without power
300K
After Hurricane Beryl hit the Houston area on July 8, Entergy Texas officials doubled down on requests from the Public Utility Commission to fund nearly $2.3 billion in projects to increase resilience and energy production. What happened? Entergy reported damaged infrastructure was mainly a result of fallen trees which led to the loss of 806 poles, 400 transformers, 979 crossarms and 150 miles of wire. “We have a vegetation management program that has tripled in the last seven years, but it primarily addresses branches and tree limbs within 5 to 10 feet of the lines,” said Eliecer Viamontes, president and CEO of Entergy Texas. Viamontes said Entergy’s projects include moving more transmission lines underground and adding two new power plants, but experts say solving the vegetation problem will not be simple. “The challenge we run into is we like trees,” said
254,460
250K
200K
150K
Improvements include two new power genera- tion stations in Port Arthur and Cleveland, which were announced prior to Beryl. The plans submit- ted to the PUC also include a pilot program for a “self-healing microgrid,” which would automati- cally redirect power when a line goes down. Funding could come from federal grants and the Texas Energy Fund, which voters approved to create in November and contains $5 billion for energy projects. Texas legislators have empha- sized energy infrastructure as special hearings and a PUC investigation were called in late July. However, Viamontes said results of the projects may not be seen for several years. “Our proposal covers the first three years, while
100K
50K
700
0
Hurricane Beryl lands
SOURCE: ENTERGY TEXAS/COMMUNITY IMPACT
other utilities, particularly in Florida, have been doing this for almost two decades,” he said. “It’s a long-term commitment, and we need state support to get started.”
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