Doug Myers of the Abilene Online Reporter News reports that the Texas Public Utility Commission has approved a massive windpower array (and the necessary transmission lines) which is expected “to handle enough wind-generated electricity to power more than 4 million homes.” From Winds of change: More jobs, lower rates for Big Country, state

The Texas Public Utility Commission’s action opens the door for construction of a far-reaching web of transmission lines that, when completed at a cost of nearly $5 billion over four or five years, would be able to handle enough wind-generated electricity to power more than 4 million homes. The electricity will go to some of the state’s most populous areas, including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston.

Paying for the PUC plan would add roughly $4 per month to residential customer bills after construction is completed.

Passage of the plan is “a real big deal,” said Sweetwater Mayor Greg Wortham, who also heads the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium. “It’s good for Abilene, good for Sweetwater, good for the region.”

Good, in fact, for the entire state of Texas, Wortham said.

“This will bring billions more dollars of investment to Texas in the form of wind equipment, construction, local revenues and jobs,” said Susan Williams Sloan, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based American Wind Energy Association.

“It will certainly help out wind energy farm developers, and I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised with the amount of wind turbines this will support,” said Rep. Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton.

“Hang on. The winds of change are coming to West Texas, and you’re in for a boon,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office.

“We think it’s going to reduce cost, reduce pollution and create jobs,” Smith said. “It’s going to be particularly beneficial for the West Texas region of the state.”

While construction costs will be passed along to customers, Smith said ultimately they will be better off because of the wind-energy plan. Smith said his nonprofit, Ralph Nader-founded group determined, based on rising fuel costs, that the wind-generated power would save consumers about $8 a month in electric costs.

Smith’s group also concluded thousands of wind industry-related jobs will result, tens of millions of dollars will be generated in local taxes, and landowners will receive lucrative royalties as a result of the transmission lines running through their properties. He said the gains would primarily be enjoyed in West Texas, although some of the manufacturing jobs would be in East Texas and El Paso.

“What’s happened in West Texas is there are these little, tiny transmission lines equivalent to two-lane country roads that aren’t set up to move megawatts on a superhighway to our cities,” Smith said.

Wind energy from West Texas flows through a substation in Graham that is ill-equipped to be a power hub for cities such as Houston and Dallas, Wortham said. Energy congestion at the Graham substation is causing the wind farms to have to take turns temporarily shutting down to curtail output.

“It gives the green light to wind developers who had wondered if they could plug in and if they could get their power to market,” Smith said. “What the wind turbine companies have told us, ‘If you build the lines, we’ll come.'”

The PUC action also sends the message to wind industry manufacturers that Texas “wants to become a world-class leader in wind development,” he said.