The public is invited to attend an open house on Sept. 16 concerning a proposed new 138-kilovolt transmission line to be built in the New Braunfels area in Comal and Guadalupe counties.

The meeting will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Knights of Columbus Hall, 509 Schertz Parkway in Schertz.

LCRA Transmission Services Corporation (LCRA TSC) will host the “come and go”-style open house as an opportunity to inform citizens about the project and to gather public input concerning line routing.

The new transmission line will connect New Braunfels Utilities’ proposed E.C. Mornhinweg Station, to be located in Comal County in the general vicinity of FM 482 (east of Schwab Road and north of IH 35), to LCRA TSC’s existing Parkway Station located just west of Schertz Parkway (south of Wiederstein Road) in Shertz. The entire project will be about seven to 11 miles long, depending on the final route.

The single-circuit line is needed to improve the reliability of the electric transmission system while meeting the region’s growing demands for electric power. It will provide a power source to the E. C. Mornhinweg substation, provide a power source along the IH-35 corridor between New Braunfels and San Antonio that can serve future load, and provide a power transmission path between the power plants in Central Texas and the load in the San Antonio area.

LCRA TSC will file in February 2011 an application with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to amend its Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, which is required before construction can begin. The PUC decides if new lines are needed to supply required electric service. While LCRA TSC will conduct a routing study and obtain public input relative to siting the new electric facilities, the PUC ultimately decides the route of new transmission lines.

The line is planned to be energized in 2014.

For more information, view the project web page, contact Christian Powell, senior regulatory case manager, at 1-800-776-5272, Ext. 4173, or (512) 369-4173, LCRA, P.O. Box 220, Mailstop BTC 101, Austin, Texas 78767.