Electric provider expected to file application to build 12-story power lines in west Frisco
Residents first learned about the proposal to construct transmission lines along either the west Frisco portion of Stonebrook Parkway or Main Street in summer 2013.
More than a year later, after examination of alternate routes and additional discussion, the proposal being readied for submission to the Public Utility Commission of Texas is much the same, with one exception—the proposed two routes include options for both overhead and underground power lines.
Brazos Electric Cooperative, the power supplier for CoServ Electric, which distributes the power to Frisco residents and businesses, is expected to file the certificate of convenience and necessity between mid-December and mid-January.
Once filed, officials and residents have a period of 45 days to submit comments to the PUCT. Then the PUCT has up to a year to decide upon the route and whether the power lines will be constructed overhead or underground.
CoServ officials said the final decision is out of their hands.
"The only influence CoServ has had in this process is working with Brazos to make sure there is an underground option included in the CCN filing," said Bruce Boutilier, CoServ's senior director of customer operations and government affairs. "The [PUCT] is the decision-maker."
Overhead vs. underground
The plan for transmission lines and a substation to provide more power in Frisco, Little Elm and The Colony was presented in July 2013.
After residents and city officials protested, CoServ and Brazos have spent the past year working to identify potential alternate routes, but all were eventually discounted. With the focus placed back on Main and Stonebrook, residents concerned about decreasing home values and aesthetics as well as health and safety issues formed the West Frisco Homeowners' Coalition.
The coalition joined forces with the Collin County Association of Realtors to mount a "Bury the Lines" campaign. The organizations are backed by city of Frisco officials as well as Frisco City Council members.
"This is a unique situation where the government, the residents and the elected officials all want the same thing—to bury the [power] lines," WFHOC President Kendall Meade said.
The city of Frisco is opposing overhead transmission lines based on its plans to expand Main and Stonebrook.
Ben Brezina, assistant to the Frisco city manager, said current traffic demands show a need for increased lanes.
Both roads are expected to be widened from four lanes to six lanes as funds allow. The city constructed the roads so the lane expansions could take place inside the median. Water transmission line installation is also planned.
"Putting in overhead power lines would impact and prohibit our ability to add those two lanes [on Stonebrook and Main]," Brezina said.
He said the city would "do whatever it needs to do" to coordinate with Brazos if the lines could be built underground.
"We would speed up construction or even [build] water lines and infrastructure," he said.
Boutilier said the Brazos CCN including underground and overhead options for the west Frisco case is "unusual and unique."
A lack of other route alternatives along with a relatively highly populated area led to the underground option, CoServ Senior Vice President of Energy Services Curtis Trivitt said.
Normally underground projects are not considered because they cost as much as 10 times more than overhead lines, he said.
Brezina said for the Frisco transmission line project it would cost about $3.5 million to build overhead lines and $31.5 million to bury the lines.
Keeping the lines overhead in west Frisco, however, would affect more people than a standard power line project in a less populated area, Brezina said.
There are about 240 residences within 300 feet of the proposed power lines along Main Street and currently 117 within 300 feet of the proposed lines on Stonebrook—a number that could be as high as 600 residences by build-out, Brezina said.
"The only rational solution is to bury the lines," Brezina said.
Keeping pace with growth
Richard Chambers, project regulatory coordinator for Brazos Electric, said of the 16 distribution cooperatives that comprise the Brazos Electric system, CoServ's territory has seen the highest amount of recent growth.
"Due to high growth in CoServ's service territory, combined with the rebound that followed a downturn in the economy, the need for additional capacity has become urgent," Chambers said. "The workload has increased greatly compared to five years ago."
Trivitt, citing statistics from the Frisco Economic Development Corp., said Frisco grew by 296 percent from 2000 to 2013. In the same 13-year period, Little Elm saw a 610 percent growth and The Colony grew by 47.8 percent.
Trivitt said historically CoServ's power load has doubled every six to seven years.
"That's terrific growth—this kind of growth is what keeps us awake at night, worrying about it," Trivitt said. "We are blessed by being in an area that is growing and dynamic, but it's almost a curse in a way because it's a continual challenge for us to try to stay ahead of it."
CoServ, through two-year, five-year and long-term plans, does a balancing act between providing power when and where it is needed while justifying spending its customers' dollars to the PUCT.
"We want to be ahead of the load growth, but not too far ahead that we make investments prematurely," Trivitt said.
The Stonebrook/Main project is one such example of that balancing act.
CoServ originally identified the eventual need for additional power in west Frisco, Little Elm and The Colony in 2009.
"2008 is when we started into the recession," Trivitt said. "When the load growth dropped off when we were in the economic downturn, we postponed moving forward with that substation. As soon as we came out of the recession, the growth came back with a vengeance. We put it on the front burner two years ago."
Trivitt said in a growing area like Frisco, power needs can change significantly—such as with the many recent announcements of development along the Dallas North Tollway, which has been coined by the EDC as the $5 billion mile.
"The $5 billion mile—that's a game-changer from our planning perspective," Trivitt said.
He said there will most likely have to be additional distribution facilities built and possibly substation upgrades to serve the many planned projects.
How to get involved:
The West Frisco Homeowners' Coalition and the Collin County Association of Realtors have mounted a "Bury the Lines" campaign urging the Public Utility Commission of Texas to bury the lines proposed for west Frisco underground.
The organizations are urging interested people to voice their comments to the PUCT during the 45-day comment period after Brazos Electric files the certificate of convenience and necessity with the PUCT.
