On : Texas PUC rewrites winter electricity rules but gives generators an out
He said it’s easier for the grid manager to plan to be without, say, 500 megawatts of wind over 12 hours than to handle a 500 megawatt gas plant that unexpectedly shuts off. Hensley pushed back against that characterization, saying that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, has become well versed in forecasting how much wind and sun power will be produced days ahead of time. PUC Chair Peter Lake echoed those sentiments at a meeting Oct. He directed the PUC in July to impose financial penalties on renewable generators if they couldn’t produce electricity when the sun isn’t shining or the wind doesn’t blow. Greg Abbott and others placed the blame with renewable-energy generators. Commissioners as soon as early November plan to release their first blueprint for Texas’ revised power market, which could be dramatically overhauled in the wake of the February freeze and subsequent power outages that killed hundreds and left millions in the dark.Īlthough most of the outages in February were caused by issues with gas- and coal-burning power plants, Gov. That growth, however, could slow depending on the Public Utility Commission of Texas’ redesign of the state’s power market. On : Survey: Consumers want ‘sustainable’ power but don’t know what that means “The resources from wind and solar standpoint are quite good, and there are a lot more places to build these projects and expand the footprint in Texas compared to other states.” “Texas has a lot of advantages when it comes to renewable technology,” said John Hensley, vice president of research and analytics for the American Clean Power Association. John Hensley, vice president of research and analyitics for the industry trade group, said many more clean-power projects are under construction here, which could generate a total of more than 42,000 megawatts once they’re finished.