“The Grid is fixed.” ERCOT warns of rolling blackouts.

How did he think of getting away with 60M in the bank? Or was it an accountant that snitched his offshore account?

 

Solar power proves its worth as heat wave grips the state

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/28/texas-solar-power-grid-heat-wave/

The heat pushed demand to a new record — topping 81,000 megawatts on Tuesday — but the state’s grid operator has only requested that residents lower their power use one day during the heat wave, when electricity from wind and power plants that use coal, nuclear or natural gas fell short of their past output.

Solar power provided nearly 20% of the Texas grid’s power needs on Tuesday before demand reached a new high.

Some 16,800 megawatts of solar power could be produced on the state grid as of the end of May, compared with 2,600 in 2019, according to data from the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

“The solar we’ve added in the last year has been tremendously beneficial, and the solar we will continue to add will also be beneficial,” said Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “Solar is such a boon for us, for grid reliability.”

The ‘solar surge’
Experts predict Texas will add more large-scale solar power infrastructure in the coming years than any other state. A recent Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie report forecasts that Texas will install enough infrastructure to produce nearly twice as much new solar power as California between 2024 and 2028.

This growth could catapult Texas closer to challenging California’s rank as the nation’s top solar producer. Texas is currently second.




Hardly any solar power flowed on the Texas grid 10 years ago, when wind energy had already begun its steady rise. Natural gas has held steady over the past decade, providing about 50% of the state’s power needs, while renewable power has become an increasing percentage of the state’s overall power generation and coal-powered plants have closed.

In 2022, wind and solar power met around 30% of the state grid’s electricity needs.


Lawmakers passed laws to help natural gas power
The legislative session that ended last month focused on changing this power mix. Lawmakers worried about the trend toward more wind and solar power, characterizing renewables as unreliable because they cannot generate power 24/7.

Politicians focused on boosting natural-gas-fueled power. They threatened to impose strict regulation on renewable energy projects, decided no longer to allow solar or wind projects to qualify for school tax breaks and established new ways to support natural-gas-fueled power financially.

Mona Tierney-Lloyd, head of U.S. state public policy at Enel North America, said lawmakers’ intent to create a less-inviting environment for renewable energy was clear. Enel, a clean energy company, has more than 3,500 megawatts of large-scale solar power operating or under construction within the Texas grid.

“There’s no mistaking the tenor of this legislative session, which clearly intended to support new … fossil [fuel power] generation and to, I would say, create some headwinds for new renewable development in the state,” Tierney-Lloyd said.

The ramifications of their decisions on power development remain to be seen.

 

It was a dark money play. FE's political consultants gave to PACs who contributed to campaigns of 20 republican reps and ran issues ads. Those supported all voted to make Householder speaker and to pass the subsidy for FE. It is essentially a Citizens United problem. I'm surprised it isn't more mainstream news.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ohio-...r-arrested-in-dollar60-million-bribery-scheme

 

First, them cowboys, and now this. (Heh.)

 

I'll quibble. Outages in Dallas are from equipment failures at the distribution level run by Oncor. It is not an ERCOT failure, which would be at the transmission level or in generation. So far, ERCOT has held up great. Reserve margins are okay, and wholesale prices have stayed reasonable.

 

How accurate are these demand forecasts? The supply forecast was right on, but the demand was lower than expected for both Monday and Tuesday peaks (tues forecasted 83.6MW, actual 78.2MW) at ~8am. The reserve margin would not be okay if the demand forecast was accurate.

 

I think ERCOT is overestimating their forecasts to be conservative. I think they scared people needlessly. Short-term, we probably spent a bit more than we needed to for spinning- and non-spinning reserves, which puts upward pressure on prices. Long-term, hurts ERCOTs reputation for forecasting expertise and generators will look elsewhere for info.