The public is invited to attend an open house on March 22 about a proposed 138-kilovolt transmission line to be built in the New Braunfels area in Comal and Guadalupe counties.

The open house will be from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 509 Schertz Parkway, in Schertz.

LCRA Transmission Services Corporation (LCRA TSC) will host the "come-and-go" open house to inform residents about the project and to gather input concerning line routing.

The new transmission line will connect the new proposed E.C. Mornhinweg Substation, which will be built by New Braunfels Utilities (NBU) 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 Substation located just west of Schertz Parkway (south of Wiederstein Road) in Schertz. 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. The new transmission line will provide a power source to NBU's proposed E.C. Mornhinweg Substation, provide a power source along the IH-35 corridor between New Braunfels and San Antonio that can serve future electric load, and provide a transmission path between Central Texas and the San Antonio area.

LCRA TSC previously hosted an open house on the project in September 2010, but the project was put on hold shortly thereafter while New Braunfels Utilities worked on acquiring the land necessary for its new E.C. Mornhinweg Substation. NBU acquired its proposed substation site and LCRA TSC restarted the transmission project in November 2011.

This summer, LCRA TSC plans to file an application with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to amend its Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, which is required before construction can start. 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 related to routes for the new electric facilities, the PUC ultimately will decide the route of the new transmission line. The line is scheduled to be energized in 2015.

For more information on the E.C. Mornhinweg-to-Parkway Project, go to www.lcra.org and type "Mornhinweg" in the search box to locate the project page.

Questions can be directed to Christian Powell, senior regulatory case manager, at 1-800-776-5272, Ext. 4546, or LCRA, P.O. Box 220, Mailstop DSC-D204, Austin, Texas 78767-0220.