Interested in Utility Scale Renewables ? Delve into ERCOT

[mspohr]

Death toll from Texas February cold spell rises by 59 to reach 210

The collapse of the power grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has made electric reliability in Texas, a Republican-run state, a key political question. In early June, Governor Gregg Abbott declared that state lawmakers had fixed the problem during its regular session that had just adjourned. Since then, two conservation alerts issued by Ercot during temperate weather prompted renewed questions. Abbott ordered new measures from a public utility commission he appointed and which oversees Ercot.

 

[navguy12]

Death toll from Texas February cold spell rises by 59 to reach 210

The collapse of the power grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has made electric reliability in Texas, a Republican-run state, a key political question. In early June, Governor Gregg Abbott declared that state lawmakers had fixed the problem during its regular session that had just adjourned. Since then, two conservation alerts issued by Ercot during temperate weather prompted renewed questions. Abbott ordered new measures from a public utility commission he appointed and which oversees Ercot.

Abbott orders Texas PUC to double down on natural gas, coal

Houston Chronicle: Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas to make substantial changes in an effort to prevent power outages in the future.

ieefa.org

 

[MontyFloyd]

ERCOT is the regulatory body for Texas utilities. It is exceptional in being transparent and having tons of accessible data. Here is an introduction:

Texas Going Big On Renewables: Phase II Has Started | CleanTechnica

Ahhhh, Texas.

In secret the BIGGEST renewable energy proponent.
In public will vilify and demonize the very idea and make it the whipping boy for all their ills.
All because the party in power thinks it will win "brownie points" with its "base"

And yes, I am in middle of it.

 

[MontyFloyd]

I don't understand why Musk is putting a plant there.

Simple, political power so support your industry.

 

[mspohr]

Simple, political power so support your industry.

Austin has one of the highest rates of COVID in the country. All of those "Freedumb" people.

 

[mspohr]

As Texas faces another winter storm, can it prevent a ‘failure on all fronts’?

Former presidential candidate Julian Castro told the Guardian: “Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans sold our state’s power grid to the highest bidder, and as a result, five million families lost power and hundreds lost their lives. Rather than working to fix the grid, they let energy lobbyists write their own laws and collected millions in political donations in return. We need new leadership that will work to modernize our grid and prioritize sustainability, not more corrupt politicians who line their pockets with money from special interests.”

 

[SageBrush]

^^ Here is the crazy aftermath of the Texas freeze:

Abbot fired the FIVE independent members of ERCOT while leaving in place the industry representatives to uhhhh .... punish those responsible, and somehow changed the rules so that their replacements will be political appointees by .... wait for it ... the governor.

I'm sure that will work out juuuuust great.

 

[mspohr]

Here is the Texas solution to grid reliability...

Texas is "fixing" its power grid in the most Texas way possible

Pending legislation imperils ordinary Texans—but it's great for the gas industry.

www.motherjones.com

Featuring nine pieces of legislation and a joint resolution, the package appears impressive at a glance; there are new rules governing energy costs, power-transmission incentives, and protection against grid attacks. State senators from both parties are happy to declare that the new laws—now awaiting final amendment and approval in the Texas House of Representatives—will beef up the state’s electricity markets and ensure reliability for consumers, a talking point echoed in media coverage.

Yet a keener analysis of the Senate bills reveals that they hardly do anything to keep the grid running—and, in their current form, would actually make Texans’ power woes even worse. Should they pass, the result wouldn’t just be an ill-equipped Texas grid, but an even weaker electrical system than the one that failed two years ago.

You don’t have to peruse that much more to detect a pattern: These are bills meant to boost fossil fuels and crowd out renewables. SB 1287 requires energy companies to cover more of the costs of connecting to the grid depending on distance—in what amounts to an added tax on renewable generators that often operate farther away from the central source and depend on lengthy transmission lines. Then there’s SB 2012, which would “incentivize the construction of dispatchable generation” and “require electric companies to pay generators to produce power in times of shortage.” Definition: more gas buildout, and more levies on electricity providers instead of gas producers. SB 2014 “eliminates Renewable Energy Credits” so as to “level the playing field” with gas sources—never mind the generous tax breaks that already benefit fossil fuel producers. SB 2015 “creates a goal of 50% dispatchable energy” for the central grid, essentially mandating that gas sources provide at least half of Texas’ electricity at all times. Senate Joint Resolution 1 hopes to enshrine SB 6’s gas backup program in the state constitution as a new amendment.

 

[SageBrush]

SB 2015 “creates a goal of 50% dispatchable energy” for the central grid, essentially mandating that gas sources provide at least half of Texas’ electricity at all times.

I'm not sure that is correct. Availability is not necessarily the same as usage. A similar situation exists with Coal generation plants planned for China.

At it's most benign, it can mirror a PV household that keeps a pile of wood but rarely uses the wood burning stove. Fossils to provide resiliency is not evil in and of itself. However, if the subsidy of the reserves undercuts renewable generation on a routine basis then it is corrupt.

The devil is in the details

From my POV, the only problem with the Texas arrangement (and it is a HUGE problem) is that fossil generation does not pay its social cost of pollution and climate change. The playing field is distorted because the externalities are ignored.