Right of Way · Eminent Domain &Condemnation Consulting Firm
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Right of Way · Eminent Domain &The Public Utility Commission of Texas decided in April 2025 that the new Permian Basin transmission backbone would be built at 765 kilovolts — the first lines at that voltage anywhere in the state. That decision became five separate certificate cases, run by three different utility groups, across a band of Texas stretching from Temple and San Antonio to the New Mexico line. Two routes are approved and in right-of-way acquisition now. Three are still open, and in those the route has not been chosen. This page tracks all five, and links to the page for each.
Almost every condemnation case is a fight about a number, not about the law.
Almost every condemnation case is a fight about a number, not about the law.
A photo of the offer is enough — a senior consultant reads it and tells you what we see.
Text (469) 484-7960 →Four documented matters, each traced from the original offer letter to final settlement — two utility easements and two highway condemnations, labelled on each. Not an average and not a prediction; when we look at yours and think the number is close to right, we tell you so. National ROW is a right-of-way consulting firm, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice.
Every 765 kV certificate case at the PUCT, verified on 9 September 2026 against the Commission’s own filing record and Oncor’s public mapping service. Filing counts are a rough measure of how hard each one is being fought.
| Docket | Project | Applicant | Status | Length | Counties | Between | Filings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59315 | Dinosaur–Longshore | Oncor | Approved 28 Aug 2026 | 242.6 mi | 13 | Glen Rose to Big Spring | 5,828 |
| 59029 | Longshore–Drill Hole | Oncor | Approved 28 Aug 2026 | 181.6 mi | 8 | Big Spring to Reeves County | 512 |
| 59182 | Big Hill–Sand Lake | Oncor / LCRA TSC | Pending — exceptions filed 2 Sep 2026 | 197–222 mi | 12 | Ward County to Schleicher County | 596 |
| 59475 | Bell County East–Big Hill | Oncor / LCRA TSC | Pending — decision expected Sep 2026 | 214–244 mi | 14 | Temple to Eldorado | 6,503 |
| 59336 | Howard–Solstice | AEP Texas / CPS Energy | Pending — tabled 28 Aug 2026 | ~370 mi | 14 | San Antonio to Pecos County | 2,721 |
Every filed corridor on every Oncor docket, the two approved centerlines, the AEP study area, and the five-docket table — on one page. Drawn from Oncor’s own published route data and US Census county boundaries, read on 9 September 2026.
Download the whole-programme map
Each project also has its own detailed sheet with mileage or filed-link counts by county: Dinosaur–Longshore · Longshore–Drill Hole · Big Hill–Sand Lake · Bell County East–Big Hill · Howard–Solstice.
This is the question that costs landowners the most, because two dockets can cover the same county and they are at completely different stages. Start with the docket number on whatever you received, then open that project’s page — each of the Oncor pages has an address checker that measures your distance to that project’s corridors.
Find your county below and tap it to open.
Crossed by both approved routes — 17.3 miles on Docket 59029 and 3.2 miles on 59315. It is the reason 13 counties plus 8 counties adds up to 20 and not 21.
On the approved Longshore–Drill Hole route and named in the Big Hill–Sand Lake case style. A letter in Odessa or Pecos is far more likely to be 59029, where acquisition has started.
Big Hill Substation is the shared endpoint between 59182 and 59475. Landowners near it sit inside two study areas at once, with two sets of land agents.
In the Big Hill–Sand Lake study area and in the AEP Howard–Solstice study area at the same time. Two different utilities, two different cases, the same ground.
If the paperwork is confusing, that is not you. Send us what you received and we will tell you which project it belongs to and what stage it is at.
More on how a taking is valued: damages to the remainder, easement vs fee taking, and what we do on a transmission line easement. Texas landowners can also start from our Texas condemnation guide.
Tell us about your property. A senior consultant reads every one of these and calls you within the hour, 8am–6pm Central, Monday to Friday. Outside those hours, first thing the next morning.
Your case is in review. A senior consultant reads everything you shared and calls you within the hour, 8am–6pm Central, Monday to Friday. Outside those hours, first thing the next morning.
In the meantime, don't sign anything and don't feel pressured to respond to their representatives.
51 distinct Texas counties sit inside at least one 765 kV study area. Twenty of them are on a route that has already been approved, which means right-of-way acquisition there has begun. The rest are in dockets where the route is still being decided.
Ector, Reeves, Crockett, Pecos, Schleicher, Tom Green and Howard appear in more than one docket, which is why the two lists together come to more than 51 names. Those are the counties where reading the docket number matters most.
We will tell you where your land sits against the filed corridors — and what a first offer on a 765 kV taking usually leaves out.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — a senior consultant answers owners the same day.
Electric load in the Permian Basin has grown faster than the transmission built to serve it. Oilfield operations that once ran on diesel and field gas now run on grid power, and large new loads — processing, compression, water handling and increasingly data centers — have queued up in a part of Texas whose backbone was designed for a much smaller demand.
The Legislature directed ERCOT to plan for that growth. ERCOT concluded the region needed a step change rather than more 345 kV, and on 24 April 2025 the Public Utility Commission of Texas chose 765 kilovolts. These are the first 765 kV lines anywhere in Texas.
765 kV means bigger hardware than most Texas landowners have dealt with: a 200-foot permanent easement and self-supporting steel lattice towers typically 155 to 160 feet tall, with an estimated maximum just under 200 feet. An ordinary distribution pole is about 34 feet above ground. That is roughly five times the height, on a strip about two-thirds as wide as a football field is long.
The practical consequence is that none of these projects gets cancelled. The need has been decided at state level. What remains open in each docket is which corridor is chosen — and after that, what each affected owner is paid.
Every one of these five dockets follows the same sequence. Knowing where yours sits tells you which fight you are still in.
Tap any step to see what happens.
The utility maps a study area, holds open houses and develops alternative route links. Landowner comments at this stage genuinely move routes.
A certificate of convenience and necessity application goes to the PUCT with every alternative route in it.
The date to become a formal party. Missing it costs you standing in the routing case. It does not cost you the right to just compensation.
Evidence, testimony, and a proposal for decision from the administrative law judges.
One route is chosen. This is the moment a study area becomes a centerline and your tract either is or is not on it. Dockets 59182, 59475 and 59336 are here now.
Land agents ask for written permission to enter and survey. This is the first document most owners sign, it is negotiable, and it is where leverage is most often given away for nothing.
The company orders an appraisal and makes a written offer. Texas law requires a bona fide offer — a procedural standard, not a promise the number is right. Dockets 59315 and 59029 are here now.
If there is no agreement the company files, three special commissioners are appointed, and they hold a hearing on value. Either side can object and take it to court.
A 200-foot permanent easement across a mile of your property is a little over 24 acres inside the strip alone. Across all five of these projects the strip is rarely the expensive part. What differs from one end of the programme to the other is what else the corridor damages.
The Permian end — Reeves, Ward, Winkler, Crane, Ector, Andrews, Loving. Surface already carrying pipelines, gathering lines, disposal routes and lease roads. The argument is cumulative burden and the industrial value of surface a raw-acreage comparable will not price.
The Rolling Plains and Cross Timbers — Howard through Erath. Cotton and dryland farming, pecans, hunting leases, ranchettes. Field shape, pivot interference and lease income drive the remainder damage.
Central Texas — Bell, Williamson, San Saba, Burnet. The most expensive land on the programme. Development potential and permanent plantings dominate, and an appraisal built on agricultural comparables systematically understates both.
The Hill Country and Edwards Plateau — Kerr, Bandera, Real, Edwards, Val Verde. Value is in view, seclusion, water and hunting. Towers visible for miles across canyon terrain is a measurable loss in comparable sales, and conservation value is real market value here.
You keep the land and lose the use of it. You still own the strip, still pay taxes on it, and cannot build on it, plant tall growth in it, or put permanent structures in it. Construction is heavy — tower foundations, crane pads, pulling sites and access roads sit outside the permanent strip under a temporary construction easement negotiated separately and routinely priced as an afterthought. And in every case the appraisal supporting the offer was ordered and paid for by the party buying your land.
A senior consultant will walk your numbers with you — the easement acreage, what it does to the remainder, and the value the first offer tends to leave on the table. No cost and no obligation.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — a senior consultant answers owners the same day.
Once the Commission signs an order and your tract is on the chosen route, the sequence is survey, appraisal, written offer. Under Texas Property Code Chapter 21 that first written offer has to be a bona fide offer supported by an appraisal. Bona fide is a procedural test. It does not mean the number is correct, and it does not mean the appraisal looked at everything it should have.
| Component | What it pays for | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| Value of the part acquired | The strip itself, priced per acre against comparable sales | Largest single line |
| Damages to the remainder | Lost value to everything you keep — severance, access, layout, irrigation, marketability | Frequently understated |
| Cost to cure | What it costs to fix what the taking broke — fences, gates, cattle guards, crossings, reseeding, drainage | Often omitted entirely |
| Temporary construction easement | Extra ground used during construction, separate from the permanent strip | Priced as an afterthought |
An offer that consists of one per-acre number multiplied by the acres in the strip has quietly priced three of those four lines at zero.
Eight things that are compensable on any of these five projects and that a per-acre offer does not address.
Tap each one to see what it means on your tract.
A 200-foot high-voltage corridor can reduce the market value of your whole tract, not just the strip. On every one of these five projects that is usually the largest single omission.
Where their trucks enter, how often, and what happens to your gates, ranch roads, cattle guards, fences and crossings during and after construction.
Extra ground taken during construction — pads, pulling sites and access — negotiated separately from the permanent strip and routinely underpriced.
What it costs to fix what the taking broke: fences, gates, cattle guards, crossings, reseeding, drainage. Frequently omitted from a first offer entirely.
Hunting and grazing leases, and solar or wind options. A corridor across the tract affects the lease, not just the easement acres.
On the Central Texas end the land is priced on what it will become. An agricultural comparable does not show what a corridor takes.
Ruts, compaction, caliche, drainage and re-seeding — who repairs what, to what standard, for how long. Put it in writing before you sign.
Texas Tax Code § 23.55(f) provides that rollback tax sanctions do not apply when the change of use results from a sale for right-of-way or from a condemnation. Confirm it with your own appraisal district.
Send it over with their appraisal if they gave you one — a photo of the pages is enough. A senior consultant reads it and tells you what their number left out, what we would argue for, and whether it can be moved.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — a senior consultant answers owners the same day.
We are on the owner's side of the right-of-way. We are paid out of the increase, which means we do not get paid unless you do better.
Send us whatever they sent you — a survey permission form, a letter, an appraisal, an offer. We read it and tell you plainly where it is weak. No charge, no obligation.
We bring in independent, certified appraisers to value the part acquired and, critically, to document damages to the remainder and cost to cure.
We deal with the land agents and their appraisers directly, with documentation behind every number, so you are not negotiating alone against people who do this full time.
Our fee is a percentage of the increase above the original offer. If we do not improve it, you owe us nothing.
Tap any question to see the answer.
Five certificate cases at the PUCT: Dockets 59315 and 59029, both approved on 28 August 2026 and now in right-of-way acquisition; and 59182, 59475 and 59336, all still open with no route chosen. Between them they cover 51 Texas counties. The county lists are on this page, and each project has its own page with the detail.
Read the docket number on whatever you received — that is the only reliable answer. Seven counties appear in more than one docket: Howard is on both approved routes; Ector and Reeves are on an approved route and in a pending study area; Schleicher and Tom Green are in two pending study areas that share the Big Hill endpoint; Crockett and Pecos are in an Oncor study area and an AEP study area at once.
Realistically, no. The Legislature directed the planning, ERCOT did it, and the Commission chose 765 kV in April 2025. The need has been decided at state level. What is still open in three of the five dockets is which corridor gets chosen — and in all five, what each affected owner is paid.
It costs you party status in the routing case, which is about where the line goes. It does not cost you the right to just compensation. If the chosen route crosses your land, the condemning entity still has to make a bona fide written offer supported by an appraisal, and you can still negotiate it, reject it, and take it to special commissioners.
On the Oncor projects the published right-of-way is approximately 200 feet, with self-supporting steel lattice towers typically 155 to 160 feet tall and an estimated maximum just under 200 feet. Confirm the exact figures against the easement document you are actually offered.
Not to what you are owed. Oncor, LCRA Transmission Services Corporation, AEP Texas and CPS Energy are all applicants on one docket or another, and the standard for just compensation is the same. None of them is on your side of the table.
Often not. On Longshore–Drill Hole the approved route was 17 of 119 filed links. On Dinosaur–Longshore the approved route came out about 13% longer than the applicants’ own preferred route. Filed preferences move, and landowner participation is a large part of why.
Nothing up front. We work on contingency — our fee is a percentage of the additional compensation we secure above their first offer. If it does not move, you owe us nothing. We are owner-side only, nationwide, since the 1980s, and we have never worked for a condemning agency or utility. We are not a law firm and not a tax advisor; legal counsel is coordinated when your case requires it.
Survey permission form, letter, appraisal, easement draft, offer — whatever stage you are at, we will read it and tell you where it is weak. Free, and there is no obligation to go further.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — we answer owners the same day.
County lists and study-area figures on this page were taken from the applicants’ own filings in PUCT Docket 59475 and from Oncor’s published project materials, and the corridors drawn on the map are read live from Oncor’s public CCN mapping service. No route has been approved, so no mileage-by-county figures are given — they do not exist yet.
