Nobody noticed, but renewables-heavy states went to ‘Energy Emergency Alert One’ this summer
Story by David Blackmon • 22h
In what has become a rare circumstance in recent years, managers of the Texas power grid at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) just successfully endured a summer during which they were not forced to issue conservation warnings or resort to other extraordinary measures to preserve grid integrity on a single day. This uneventful summer was achieved despite the setting of new record power demand on several days in August. Texas has learned its lessons.
ERCOT and officials at the Public Utility Council of Texas (PUCT) remain concerned about a longstanding paucity of dispatchable thermal reserve capacity, especially during harsh winter weather conditions. To help alleviate that concern, the PUCT moved last week to award low-interest loan guarantees totaling $5.4 billion to 17 applicants to build a total of almost 10 GW of new natural gas generating capacity to be sited around the state. This is part of the Texas Energy Fund in-ERCOT loan program signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott at the end of the 2023 legislative session.
Additional natural gas capacity on the ERCOT grid is in high demand, as evidenced by the fact that PUCT announced in May it had been overwhelmed by 72 applications for 38.4 GW in response to its initial solicitation for bids under the TEF program. This year’s extraordinarily successful summer and the awarding of these bids under the TEF program mark the culmination of a series of system reforms enacted by policymakers in the wake of Winter Storm Uri, which caused major blackouts and the deaths of more than 300 Texans in February, 2021.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nobody-noticed-but-renewables-heavy-states-went-to-energy-emergency-alert-one-this-summer/ar-AA1pREMB?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=cd1f6a3469a5473cbcb57aaba786a177&ei=62
