The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved the final order for the planned power lines project in West Frisco during its June 9 meeting, about a year after electric provider Brazos Electric filed its application to build the lines with the PUCT.
Construction for the hybrid overhead/underground power lines route—which spans from west of FM 423 to east of Legacy Drive on Main Street—is expected to begin by next fall.
The process to finalize this power lines project resulted in multiple public meetings in Austin, the rallying of residents to create the Bury the Lines advocacy group and the city of Frisco agreeing to contribute more than $12 million to have the lines buried.
“I’m hopeful we’ll never have to go through anything like this again,” said Ben Brezina, assistant to the city manager.
Though this project garnered the attention of many city leaders, residents and business owners, it is not the only power lines project in the works in Frisco.
CoServ, a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative and one of Brazos’s members, began construction on a distribution lines route along FM 423 in June and is planning another transmission lines project near SH 121 called the Kittyhawk project.
Both of these projects differ from the project along Main Street and may not call for as much city involvement.
The project on the west side of FM 423 that spans from Lebanon Road to Witt Road includes distribution lines. Distribution lines—which use utility poles—are built from a substation to the neighborhoods they power, CoServ spokesperson Oscar Martinez said. The lines to be built along Main Street are transmission lines, which use the larger, metal poles built from the generation plant to the substation.
Distribution lines are smaller because they are lower-voltage lines used for homes and businesses, and they are common across Frisco, Brezina said.
“The [project] on FM 423 is the same as if they put one off on Eldorado [Parkway] or Rolater [Road] or pick your street,” Brezina said. “It’s your telephone pole line.”
The lines on FM 423 are also being built on the side of the road, whereas the line along Main Street will be built and buried along the median.
The Kittyhawk project is also a transmission lines project, but the proposed routes are generally along undeveloped private property. The Main Street project route is on city property.
The proposed Kittyhawk project—which could run through the cities of McKinney, Allen, Plano and Frisco—has received mixed reactions from other city councils. McKinney City Council passed a resolution in early June opposing the proposed substation location within McKinney’s city limits. Then, Plano City Council passed a resolution supporting the shortest and most cost-effective proposed route option. Frisco City Council has not discussed a resolution regarding the project.
Shona Huffman, Frisco Chamber of Commerce director of governmental affairs, said the chamber would prefer the shortest and most cost-effective route for the Kittyhawk project.
“For Kittyhawk, since there are routes that are cheaper and less invasive to development and residents and businesses, those are the routes that we would prefer,” she said. “We’re researching to see what involvement, if any, we’ll have [with the project].”
Brazos plans to file an application called a certificate of convenience and necessity for the Kittyhawk project with the PUCT on Sept. 2. Martinez said residents have a voice in determining the location of substations for the project.
“CoServ encourages residents to be part of the process that will lead to Brazos Electric filing a certificate of convenience and necessity with the PUC,” he said.
