Texas Grid Roundup #13, May 29, 2024

More power outages; new info on what it costs to build power plants in ERCOT; responses to the PUC's energy efficiency questions; ERCOT's bid to buy demand response; and more...

Credit: PowerOutages.US

As we publish, there are half a million Texas homes and businesses without power. Oncor, the utility for most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area with the most outages from yesterday’s storm, submitted their resiliency plan just last week. But their plan is insufficient.

Policymakers, utilities, retailers, municipal utilities, and cooperatives must expand their definition of grid resiliency to encompass resilience at customers’ homes and businesses. By including the integration of distributed energy resources, such as solar panels and battery storage systems, people can better withstand increasingly extreme weather while everyone benefits from increased capacity and reduced strain during peak demand periods.

Further, adding insulation, high efficiency heat pumps, and smart thermostats also improve customer resilience and grid reliability. These technologies not only reduce energy consumption and costs for consumers but also contribute to a more stable, reliable, and flexible grid. As utilities and policymakers analyze how to prevent future multi-day outages, they need to take a comprehensive approach that combines utility investments with customer-sited solutions. By empowering consumers to be more resilient, Texas can build a more robust and reliable system that better withstands extreme weather events and growing energy demand.

More on this in future newsletters.

Today in the Grid Roundup, I look at:

• ERCOT’s Request for Proposals for demand response with a deadline in two weeks; 

• Responses to the PUC’s questions on efficiency including ERCOT’s comment that demand side resources are “necessary” for reliability;

• The deeply flawed Capacity, Demand, and Reserves (CDR) report issued last Friday; and

• New estimates of the “Cost of New Entry” (CONE), or the cost to build a power plant in ERCOT from the Brattle Group