The mainstream media took notice in late February when TXU Corp. announced it was the target of a $45 billion cash-and-debt buyout by private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group. But that wasn’t the only multi-billion-dollar ener-gy-related deal announced in the Lone Star State that month. In fact, it was only one of three.

In the space of two weeks, Sharyland Utilities (a small, privately owned T&D utility operating in far south Texas), Electric Transmission Texas (a

Everything’s Bigger—
and Greener—in Texas
By Steven M. Brown, editor in chief

proposed joint venture between American Electric Power and MidAmerican Energy Holdings) and TXU Corp. cumulatively produced more than $50 billion worth of proposed power industry deals, proving once again that everything really is bigger in Texas. Bigger and, based on these deals, getting greener all the time.

Sharyland’s Plan for the Panhandle

To outsiders, the Texas panhandle doesn’t seem to offer much more than horizons that go on forever, a fair amount of soil both on the ground and in the air, and wind. Especially wind.

All that wind, a bane to those who aren’t used to it, will soon be a boon to west Texas and the Texas panhandle.

On Feb. 15, Sharyland Utilities announced it had filed a proposal with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to build an 800-mile, 345-kV transmission loop throughout the Texas panhandle. The Panhandle Loop, as it’s being called, would act as a pipeline to the panhandle’s rich wind resources. The project is intended to connect up to 8,000 MW of power—mostly wind but also natural gas and coal-fired generation—into the ERCOT electric market.

“Quite simply, this proposal will bring the ERCOT grid to the panhandle,” said Hunter Hunt, president of Sharyland Utilities. “That way, the entire state can enjoy the benefits of the tremendous wind resources located there, as well as the substantial gas and coal resources.”