This op-ed is part of a series published by The Dallas Morning News Opinion section to explore ideas and policies for strengthening electric reliability. Find the full series here: Keeping the Lights On.
In an increasingly advanced society, we are highly dependent on energy to power homes and businesses. With a growing population, technological advancements, and weather and climate stressors, the demand for energy is greater than ever.
In February, a winter storm swept across a large portion of the United States. In Texas, 69% of people lost electricity for an average of almost two days, 42 hours, while almost half did not have running water for an average of over two days, and more than 100 people died of exposure to low temperatures and dangerous attempts to warm their homes.
With an estimated 4.5 million Texans left without power, the storm and consequent outages are estimated to have cost the Texas economy anywhere between $80 billion and $130 billion in direct and indirect economic losses by conservative estimates.
The storm and outage shone a light on major issues and emphasized the importance of building electric resilience.
The implications of energy policy in Texas are profound and sweeping. As energy affects and is affected by everything including anthropogenic climate change to jobs, national security and the economy, the political climate surrounding energy in Texas has often been less-than-ideal.
Furthermore, Texas, like other states, has been forced to address instability and shifting priorities among and across presidential administrations. Under-acknowledged is the fact that, for each challenge the energy sector faces, administrators and legislators possess an opportunity to improve the reliability and security of our grid, the economy, the job market, efficiency, equity, sustainability and — ultimately — resilience.
The implications of climate change on both extreme warm and extreme cold weather are important to consider when planning and implementing policies and energy systems in Texas. Many policy and economic experts say pursuing climate resilience is crucial to policymaking and system planning, particularly in order to ensure electric security.
Serving as a source of growing demand and usage of energy is population growth. The Texas population is projected to nearly double by 2050, growing to as many as 54.4 million people. With Texas’ summer peak demand growing approximately 1.6% each year while the number of hot days each year increases, energy demand and usage are projected to continue growing in Texas.
Further, Texas is one of few areas that has experienced all seven types of billion-dollar disasters analyzed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Texas has experienced 124 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters since 1980 – totaling just over 43.5% of the 285 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the entire U.S. between 1980 and 2020.
As of 2020, Texas leads the U.S. in total cumulative costs (approximately $290 billion) from billion-dollar disasters since 1980, with Florida following in second (approximately $230 billion).
Three key strategies could put the Texas energy system on the road to resilience.
Energy efficiency. As Texas cities become older, so too do many of the homes, businesses and communities within them. As such, it is important to tackle two key problems in energy: energy inefficiency and growing energy use.
By investing in energy efficiency improvement programs for homes, businesses and communities, we tackle the problem at the source and benefit the grid, the public and the economy. Improving energy efficiency will lower utility bills, which will leave residents with more money in their bank accounts.
Investing in energy efficiency improvement programs should include weatherization and energy efficiency-improving modernization of homes, businesses and communities. This policy can reduce residential energy costs, reduce energy usage, and help adapt to and mitigate weather and climate hazards.
This recommendation can be achieved by expanding existing programs: the Texas LoanSTAR program, the Weatherization Assistance Program, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
Smart planning. Making smart, forward-thinking infrastructure investments requires performing maintenance and upgrades to power generators and the grid as they are needed, rather than waiting until a major disaster forces action. Future-forward planning requires addressing all potential failure points, including weather design limits of equipment.
Better weatherization and digitization can improve efficiency of power plants, help optimize the existing grid, reduce transmission and distribution losses, and reduce pollution.
Intelligent investments can include microgrids — that is, investing in smaller grids for disadvantaged communities, rural communities, or any other community that would benefit from greater control over its own energy resources. Microgrids can improve the security of our energy, as it is more difficult to attack multiple grids than a single grid. Microgrids also enable communities to come back online faster after natural disasters.
Diversification. An all-of-the-above approach is necessary to meet growing energy needs, while also molding to fit regional climates. For example, while solar and wind may work for West Texas, perhaps tidal or a mixture of tidal and other sources is better along the Gulf Coast.
Flexibility and customization are required for an energy portfolio that is best suited to the features and characteristics of each community, city and region.
Diversification also includes integration of diverse distributed resources and investment in research and development for emerging sources of energy. This includes renewable energy technologies, like tidal energy, and smaller-scale renewables and nuclear reactors.
Investment in the R&D of battery storage is crucial to the viability and reliability of renewables, while investment in technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is important to mitigate anthropogenic climate change and reduce weather and climate hazards.
To ensure resiliency, security and further economic development, Texas must be prepared for curves in the road. If we aren’t, the consequences will be felt in the economy, politics and lives of Texans.
It is incredibly important to frame each challenge as an opportunity and plan accordingly. Each of these challenges presents a unique opportunity to create changes that prepare Texas to simultaneously overcome these obstacles while advancing technologically and experiencing economic growth.
KyLeigh Richardson is a graduate of the master’s in public administration program at Texas Tech University and a Texas Lyceum Fellow. This column is an adaptation of her research paper for the Texas Lyceum.
Got an opinion about this issue? Send a letter to the editor and you just might get published.