Photo credit: Al Braden
After Winter Storm Uri led to a catastrophic collapse of our energy grid last February, politicians, utilities, consumer groups, and just about everyone have been talking about how and whether we should change our electric market.
Following legislative action and a directive from Governor Abbott to make the system more reliable, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) has been asking lots of questions and seeking answers. To be more precise, early this month the PUC asked everyone to answer six specific questions about the design of the market run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). ERCOT is the independent organization that runs Texas’ mostly isolated electric grid. While the PUC also oversees the parts of Texas that operate in other grids (the Panhandle, northeast and far east Texas, parts of east Texas, and El Paso), this work is all about reforming ERCOT.
In the PUC’s new project, (Project 52373), the PUC asked for public input on several questions:
- Should ERCOT and the PUC change maximum prices? Or require energy companies to guarantee a certain amount of energy a day before they plan to provide it?
- How could ERCOT and the PUC design programs to shave more off our peak energy use?
- What else can be done to improve the market design?
What the PUC got back were 60+ distinct comments which can be found here. As you would expect, there were lots of diverse opinions, from... yes let’s pay more for fossil fuel energy than wind and solar... to jack up the use of demand response and distributed generation like solar and storage.
Did the Sierra Club participate in these comments? Yes, twice. First, we filed detailed comments which can be found here. We emphasized that the PUC should not bluntly blame our existing market design for the grid’s failures. Instead, we point to other issues, such as the fact that the PUC doesn’t require power plant owners to properly prepare for extreme heat and cold; doesn’t require gas (fuel) suppliers to actually get the fuel to power plants that rely on it, and doesn’t even consider the impacts of the rapidly changing climate. We also said the future needs to see more use of renewables, energy efficiency, storage, demand response, and distributed generation like onsite solar. We should not prop up dirty, aging gas plants. We made several suggestions to tweak the market, but also called on the PUC and ERCOT to meaningfully include the public (electric consumers) in the discussion.
Second, we signed onto comments from more than a dozen consumer and public interest organizations that made four main points. First, include the public in the discussion. Second, don’t ignore the demand side and energy efficiency. Third, don’t discriminate against clean energy. And fourth, make sure the reforms benefit consumers, including communities most impacted by the storm.
Next up for the PUC will be a workshop on August 26, 2021 (invited testimony only) which can be viewed here. The PUC is planning to propose some draft changes to the energy market in November and is hoping to take action by December 19 under their schedule.