PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION

CERTIFICATION PROCESS

Electric Utility Conducts Environmental Assessment and Routing Analysis

• Establish study area based on project definition.

• Gather data about study area and map environmental and land use constraints in study area.

• Determine preliminary transmission line segments.

• Hold open house to gather public input.

• Analyze data and feedback from the public to develop primary transmission line routes,

including multiple alternatives.

• Prepare an Environmental Assessment Report.

Electric Utility Defines Project

• Conduct research and review studies to determine need.

• Identify needed facilities and end points of the project.

Electric Utility Applies for CCN Amendment

• Submit application to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to amend Certificate of Convenience

and Necessity (CCN).

• Send notices to landowners whose properties may be crossed or who own a habitable structure, such as a

home or office building, within 500 feet of route alternatives at the time CCN application is filed.

• Send notices to municipalities and electric utilities within five miles of the project and to local government

entities where the project will potentially be located.

Public Participation

• After the CCN application is filed, people who are potentially impacted by the project have an

opportunity to participate in the application proceeding at the PUC by filing a request to participate

(intervene), typically due within 45 days.

• If no parties intervene in the proceeding, the PUC staff conducts a review and issues a recommendation

to the PUC.

• If parties have intervened in the proceeding, testimony may be filed, an administrative hearing may be held,

and an administrative law judge will prepare a recommendation to the PUC regarding the application.

PUC Decision

• Within 6 months of the CCN application filing, the PUC will approve or deny the application, or approve it with

modifications. The PUC may select any route from among the alternative route links proposed by the applicants.

• PUC approval directs the electric utility to build the new transmission line along the route selected by the PUC.