Abbott, ERCOT, Energy Texas and Texas Power Grid Issues

[China]

Texans Vote in Favor of Billions for Fossil Fuels, Leaving Out Renewables as an Option

 

The votes are in, and Texans overwhelmingly voted “yes” for Proposition 7, which will funnel billions of dollars to fund fossil fuel power plants instead of turning to renewables to back up the state’s fragile electrical grid. The proposition will allow the creation of a $10 billion energy fund, none of which can go to wind, solar, or battery storage.

 

More than 64% of eligible Texas voters voted in favor of Proposition 7, according to a report from The New York Times Wednesday. The proposition authorizes the Public Utility Commission of Texas to create the “Texas Energy Fund,” which will provide 3% interest loans for constructing power plants that can generate more than 100 megawatts. The fund will total approximately $10 billion, and more than $7 billion of the money will go towards the loans and completion grants.

 

The results of Tuesday’s vote comes over two years after millions experienced outages during a deadly winter storm that likely led to the death of more than 200 Texans in 2021.

 

Texas State Sen. Charles Schwertner (R), who pushed the proposition, rejoiced at the election results.

 

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[China]

Texas power plants have no responsibility to provide electricity in emergencies, judges rule

 

Almost three years since the deadly Texas blackout of 2021, a panel of judges from the First Court of Appeals in Houston has ruled that big power companies cannot be held liable for failure to provide electricity during the crisis. The reason is Texas’ deregulated energy market.

 

The decision seems likely to protect the companies from lawsuits filed against them after the blackout. It leaves the families of those who died unsure where next to seek justice.

 

In February 2021, a massive cold front descended on Texas, bringing days of ice and snow. The weather increased energy demand and reduced supply by freezing up power generators and the state’s natural gas supply chain. This led to a blackout that left millions of Texans without energy for nearly a week.

 

The state has said almost 250 people died in the winter storm and blackout, but some analysts call that a serious undercount.

 

Within days of the storm, Texans affected by the failure of the energy system began filing lawsuits. Some of those suits were brought against power generators whose plants had stopped working in the storm or had run out of fuel to generate electricity.

 

After years of legal process, a three-judge panel convened to decide on the merits of those lawsuits.

 

This week, Chief Justice Terry Adams issued the unanimous opinion of that panel that “Texas does not currently recognize a legal duty owed by wholesale power generators to retail customers to provide continuous electricity to the electric grid, and ultimately to the retail customers.”

 

The opinion states that big power generators “are now statutorily precluded by the legislature from having any direct relationship with retail customers of electricity.”

 

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[China]

This is when ERCOT predicts we could see rolling blackouts

 

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has released a forecast for January, and it explains when the power grid has the highest chances of requiring conservations, and even rolling blackouts.

 

The forecast uses the winter freeze of 2022 as a scenario. According to Dr. Daniel Cohan of Rice University, he agrees next Monday and Tuesday, Texas could experience similar weather conditions and demands on the power grid as we experienced during a nationwide winter storm in December 2022. That’s when an extremely cold air mass shifted over Texas on Dec. 22, 2022, causing temperatures to plummet across the state. Much of Texas endured temperatures below freezing - in some cases well below freezing - for dozens of hours.

 

If next week is similar to December 2022 conditions, here is when ERCOT predicts the grid will require controlled outages.

 

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[China]

Two Democrats propose bill to connect Texas to national grids

 

Two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives will introduce a new piece of legislation that could end Texas' energy isolation to improve energy reliability and reduce consumer costs.

 

Rep. Greg Casar of Texas' 35th Congressional District and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York will move forward with a bill called "Connect the Grid Act." The bill would require the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to connect to the U.S. major electric grids. The lawmakers said in a news release that by connecting ERCOT to the rest of the country, Texans would save money, avoid blackouts during weather emergencies, and help the nation reach its climate goals with Texas' clean energy production. 

 

 

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