By Jett Whittington — The Alliance Gazette
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has approved the route for a major new high-voltage transmission line that will pass close to the southern and southeastern corners of Eastland County. The commission signed its final order on Aug. 28, 2026, in Docket No. 59315.
The order clears Oncor Electric Delivery Company to build the Dinosaur Switch–Longshore Switch line, a single-circuit 765-kilovolt transmission line that will run roughly 242.6 miles across West and Central Texas. The commission approved the path known as Route 559 and amended Oncor’s certificate of convenience and necessity to allow construction.
Where the line goes
Route 559 runs between two switching stations: Oncor’s Longshore switch, about 4.5 miles west of Forsan in Howard County, and a new Dinosaur switch to be built about 3 miles north of Glen Rose in Somervell County. The order lists 22 counties within the project’s notice area, including Eastland.
For Eastland County residents, the key point is proximity rather than crossing. The approved centerline does not enter Eastland County. Based on the route geography, it travels along the county’s southern and southeastern boundaries, coming closest to the Desdemona and Gorman areas.
The line will be built on single-circuit steel lattice towers, generally within a 200-foot right-of-way, according to the order. Typical towers will stand about 155 to 160 feet tall, with a maximum height of roughly 198 feet.
What it will cost
The total estimated cost to build the line along Route 559 is about $2.24 billion, the order states. That figure includes roughly $1.7 billion for the line itself and about $538.8 million for station work, including new 765-kV switchyards at both the Longshore and Dinosaur ends. Oncor plans to finance the project through a combination of debt and equity.
The commission’s order limits the authorization to seven years from the date it was signed.
Why the line is being built
The order ties the project to state efforts to strengthen the electric grid serving the Permian Basin. In 2023, the Legislature passed House Bill 5066, which directed the commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to develop a reliability plan for the region. The commission approved that plan in October 2024.
The Dinosaur–Longshore line is the eastern half of a project ERCOT calls Import Path 1, which is designed to move power into the Permian Basin. According to the order, transmission providers projected sharp growth in electricity demand there, driven both by oil and gas activity and by newer sources of demand. The order specifically names cryptocurrency mining operations, data centers, and hydrogen production facilities. The western half of the project is being handled in a separate docket, No. 59029.
The route the commission chose — and one it rejected
Oncor’s routing study, prepared by Halff Associates and Kimley-Horn, presented 130 filed routes for the commission to consider. Route 559 was one of several alternatives put forward by intervenors during the case.
The commission’s own staff had recommended a different path, Route 713. The administrative law judges who heard the case recommended Route 559, and the commission adopted that recommendation. The order notes that Route 559 avoids Dinosaur Valley State Park, a point of concern raised repeatedly during the proceeding, and that it has a nearly 100-mile stretch with no intervenor opposition. The order records 102 known habitable structures within 500 feet of the approved centerline.
A reversal on public-meeting notice
The commission’s final order departed from the judges’ recommendation on one procedural question. The administrative law judges had found that Oncor did not fully comply with public-meeting notice rules, because the company added and modified route links after holding three public meetings in June 2025 without holding additional meetings for landowners near the new links.
The commission reversed that finding. It concluded that Oncor complied with the rule, reasoning that the regulation requires only that a utility hold at least one public meeting before filing its application, and that landowners on filed links still received notice of the application itself and could participate in the case. As a result, the commission deleted the related findings and revised its conclusion of law to state that Oncor provided proper notice. In his Aug. 27 memorandum recommending the change, Chairman Thomas Gleeson noted that roughly 1,650 landowners near links added after the June 2025 meetings had not received notice of a public meeting.
The final order also added a provision allowing Oncor to make larger-than-minor deviations from the approved route in limited circumstances — but only with the consent of every affected landowner and only if the change keeps the line on a reasonably direct path without unreasonably increasing cost or delay.
Process notes
The docket was consolidated with the western-segment case, No. 59029, on Aug. 21 for the shared question of whether the lines are needed, then separated again on Aug. 28 so each could receive its own final order.
The order was signed by Chairman Gleeson and Commissioners Kathleen Jackson, Courtney Hjaltman, and Patrick Rhode. The signature of Commissioner Morgan Johnson does not appear on the final order.
Oncor’s application estimated it would finish construction and energize the line by June 2029, though those estimates were based on the commission approving the application within 180 days of its February 2026 filing.
The final order can be found here in our google drive: Oncor Transmission Line/Wilks Ranch