Vice Chair Cooper and the board of directors of the Lower Colorado River Authority met Jan. 22, 2025, in an open session where an LCRA executive summarized the authority's wildfire mitigation actions and infrastructure investments across power, water and communications.

The executive said LCRA treats safety as a core value and described transmission construction, vegetation management, inspection and coordinated protocols with state and local first responders intended to prevent, detect and mitigate wildfire damage. LCRA staff also said the authority can take targeted measures such as disabling automated operations on affected lines and, in critical situations, de‑energizing lines when fire threatens rights of way.

Board members heard that LCRA's transmission engineering and construction work aims to strengthen lines against high winds and reduce fire risk. The staff presentation said system operations personnel, emergency management and field crews monitor weather and wildfire conditions from a system operations center and coordinate with transmission field operators and state and local agencies as needed.

The executive reported that LCRA is building a two‑unit power plant in Caldwell County that the presentation described as providing about 380 megawatts and estimated to serve more than 100,000 homes during peak demand; the first unit was said to be on track for operation in 2025 and the second in 2026. The presentation also said LCRA plans to invest more than $4,000,000,000 in transmission capital projects over the next five years to improve reliability and resilience.

On water supply, the authority noted its Arbuckle reservoir project, which the presentation said could add up to 90,000 acre‑feet per year to regional supplies. LCRA staff reported storage as of Jan. 20 at 30,262,600 acre‑feet (described in the meeting materials) and said Arbuckle is expected to enter service in late spring 2025, subject to available flows and the results of testing. Staff also outlined a plan to increase supplies in the upper basin by about 60,000 acre‑feet by 2040 and signaled $174,000,000 in planned water‑supply investments over the next five years.

The executive emphasized conservation as part of the strategy, and staff outlined ongoing investments to rehabilitate or replace floodgate and dam infrastructure. The presentation said that since fiscal 2010 LCRA has invested more than $187,000,000 in capital projects for dams and related hydroelectric infrastructure and expects to add roughly $96,000,000 through fiscal 2029, bringing the total to more than $283,000,000.

Staff also described growth in LCRA's communications and community services, saying the authority owns more than 2,700 miles of fiber that could act as middle‑mile capacity for roughly 500,000 people in the region, and that the authority's radio system currently covers more than 15,000 square miles across 50 counties with plans to expand to a 102‑county service territory covering more than 128,000 square miles. The presentation highlighted LCRA's parks (more than 40 parks and roughly 11,000 acres), summer youth programs and a Community Development Partnership grant program that has awarded 2,093 grants totaling more than $53,000,000; combined with reported matching funds of more than $240,000,000, the program materials cited about $294,000,000 invested in local communities.

The executive closed by thanking longtime staff member Kristen Shepherd for her leadership and announced her planned departure, with a last day reported as Feb. 14 and an anticipated new start in mid‑March.

The board did not take formal action on the report. The meeting proceeded to routine finance and consent items and later approved rate and contract items in separate votes.