Southwest Power Pool Board Approves $1.8 Billion Transmission Expansion with New 765 kV and 345 kV Corridors Across Texas and Kansas
Addressing unprecedented load additions from gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence data campuses and massive wind curtailment, the SPP Board of Directors ha...
Southwest Power Pool Board Approves $1.8 Billion Transmission Expansion with New 765 kV and 345 kV Corridors Across Texas and Kansas
Addressing unprecedented load additions from gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence data campuses and massive wind curtailment, the SPP Board of Directors has approved the 2026 Integrated Transmission Plan (ITP), authorizing $1.8 billion in extra-high-voltage grid projects.
- Publish date: 2026-09-21
- Category: Standards & Policy
- Original source: Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Board of Directors
- Reading time: 5 min
First New 765 kV Transmission Build in the Midwest in Decades
The cornerstone of the approved 2026 portfolio is a new 220-mile 765 kV extra-high-voltage transmission corridor extending from western Kansas through Oklahoma into the Texas Panhandle. Operating at 765 kV yields more than triple the power throughput of a standard double-circuit 345 kV line with substantially lower line losses.
The expansion includes three major 765/345 kV substations equipped with single-phase autotransformer banks rated at 2,000 MVA, gas-insulated switchgear, and fast-acting 765 kV shunt reactors to mitigate light-load Ferranti effect overvoltages.
Relieving Grid Curtailment for 8 Gigawatts of Trapped Wind Power
SPP routinely experiences negative electricity prices across its western footprint due to local transmission bottlenecks trapping over 8,000 MW of low-cost wind generation during nighttime hours.
The new 765 kV and 345 kV circuits will route renewable megawatts directly toward emerging hyperscale data center clusters near Dallas, Tulsa, and Kansas City, with construction planned between 2027 and 2031.
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