Wind loves the Texas Panhandle. And the hundreds of giant wind mills that dot the flat plains all around Amarillo love the wind.

The wind mills are grouped into “wind farms,” which are owned by generation companies. The electricity is collected by a network of Oncor substations that dot the Panhandle and create a sprawling, 500-mile ring around Amarillo.

As a transmission and distribution company, it’s Oncor’s job to ensure that the electricity makes it onto the Texas grid and eventually to the cities and towns that it serves.

“Our team here is what I consider boots on the ground,” said Blake Chavarria, S&T Crew Foreman in Amarillo. “There’s seven of us. We handle all of the day-to-day maintenance and construction.”

Oncor’s Panhandle substations are part of the CREZ (or Competitive Renewable Energy Zone) loop to collect and deliver renewable energy to Texas customers. Right now, the energy comes mostly from wind farms, but soon, generation companies will open the first solar farms.

Oncor acquired the Panhandle system in 2019 in a transaction with Sharyland Distribution & Transmission Services.

The substations are located anywhere from 30 minutes to nearly two hours from Amarillo, so Chavarria’s team spends much of its time driving to get to its work.

“Our work is far away from everything,” Chavarria said. “It’s very quiet, very serene. We can do our work in peace. When we go patrolling transmission lines, it’s beautiful, beautiful hill country once you get down into the canyon. And on the flat plains, you can see for miles.”

Patrolman Tyson Bainum can rack up nearly 50,000 miles a year during his twice-monthly checks at Oncor’s substations and other work assignments.

“The wind farms out here can generate anywhere from 100 to 500 megawatts,” Bainum said. “That’s peak generation. Wind blowing 30 miles an hour. They’re all spinning.”

Oncor’s Panhandle location is also home to two synchronous condensers, the only such equipment in the company. A synchronous condenser, or “syncon,” is used to maintain the proper flow of electricity on the system when the wind drops off and the wind farms’ energy output falls.

The primary job for Cris Villagomez, Diagnostic Test Technician, is to maintain the synchronous condensers.

“The purpose of the syncon is to help the stability of the grid due to the instability of wind and solar,” Villagomez said. “It’s like a cruise control for the system. It keeps electrical power flowing in the right direction to keep the grid stable.”

Villagomez said Oncor expects the number of renewable energy sources in the Panhandle to keep growing.

“We’re looking at the addition of about four or five new switching stations, and they will be where the wind farms and the solar farms will tie onto us,” he said.

A Panhandle native, Chavarria previously worked for Oncor in Big Spring before moving to Amarillo after the Sharyland deal.

“It was a bit of a learning curve for me, but as with everything I’ve done here, I try to tackle that head on with an open mind,” he said.

“I know we’re not well known as a service territory out here, but there’s a lot of opportunity here for growth,” Chavarria said. “A lot of opportunity to learn a totally different type of loop and grid and system.”