Lines Built for Texas Wind Power Help Supply Permian Oil Patch

A new boom is now under way as oil companies like Apache Corp, EOG Resources and Pioneer Natural Resources use fracking technology to extract oil from geologic zones previously thought too expensive to produce.

"The formations have been so well-researched over the years," Greer said. Companies "know where the oil is and now that they have the technology, it's how fast can you move."

The need for more electricity to serve oil and gas infrastructure and fast-growing towns spurred Oncor to find ways to better pinpoint oil company needs and to propose more than $200 million in grid upgrades.

"We had a fairly good handle on load growth, but you couldn't have picked a weaker spot on our system," said Greer. "We were used to serving rural, traditional oil fields, not the compression and related equipment needed now" to meet oil company needs.

Electric infrastructure has also been a problem for energy companies operating in the Eagle Ford shale of South Texas where American Electric Power has been busy expanding energy company connections to the grid.

In West Texas, some upgrades will take a year to install so the nearly finished wind lines offered a quicker solution.

By year-end, Oncor and 11 other power companies will have energized more than 3,500 miles of new 345-kilovolt transmission lines as part of the CREZ program at a cost of $6.8 billion.