9.20.16
On September 20, at the Regional Planning Group (RGP), Sharyland announced the findings from its recent panhandle study, based on which Sharyland will be submitting panhandle phase 2* project for ERCOT to review and approve.
Sharyland recommended 175 MVA Synchronous Condenser (SC) to be added at WinMill, as a second phase after the second circuit project, with an estimated cost of $240 M which Sharyland’s report verifies to meet the ERCOT economic criteria. This project is expected to increase the system strength export limit from 4004 MW to 4833 MW (prior to applying the 90% operational limit). This is a great improvement for the area, however this still falls short of the full 5,269 MW currently committed in the panhandle (signed IA meeting section 6.9), and includes provisions to limited generation at WindMill to 1103 MW from the full 1255 MW committed to that station. Sharyland however indicated that they will be doing additional study to look at system needs for up to 6000 MW in the Panhandle.