This editorial 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.
Can we count on having electricity this winter? That’s the question everybody’s asking ERCOT chief executive Brad Jones. It’s the question we asked him, too.
In a meeting with the editorial board, he offered good reasons to have confidence in the Texas electrical system and trust in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid. But, in some key areas, the best he could offer was a long-term vision and hope.
Bottom line: If this winter is milder than last, we’re probably in good shape. But worse or unexpected weather could overwhelm the work ERCOT is doing to shore up electricity supply and distribution.
ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission are taking critical steps to improve reliability this year. The PUC has implemented requirements for power generators to weatherize equipment to withstand a storm as bad as 2011, when a one-day freeze caused enough power generators to seize up that ERCOT called for rotating outages.
The 2021 storm was much worse, a week of freezing weather and power outages across the state. So power generators must also address problems they experienced in February. ERCOT will inspect plants in coming weeks, and any generator that won’t comply could face fines in the millions.
Further, ERCOT has encouraged distribution companies like Oncor to better sort which customers participate in rolling outages. In February, many Texans were frustrated that they lost electricity for days while other homes stayed warm. Because hospitals, firehouses and other critical operations are exempt from outages, many homes on the same circuits kept power, too. Now the distribution utilities are trying to separate critical operations from surrounding neighborhoods.
Ten months is enough time for regulators to improve maintenance and efficiency of existing resources. But it is not enough time to build more power plants or for regulators, industry executives and politicians to agree on changes to the market to prioritize reliability. In no scenario was Texas going to get new power plants online in time for winter.
This is the real debate happening at the PUC. The outcome will determine if Texas has enough electricity to keep growing.
The issue for long-term reliability is that the deregulated Texas market has attracted enormous investment in wind and solar generation, pushing older fossil fuel plants off the grid. Now ERCOT has to figure out how to keep the juice flowing when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind stops blowing.
Jones offered a regulatory fix: Use customer fees to keep some backup power generation on standby, that can come on quickly in an emergency. For example, batteries, or extra fuel stored on site at a fossil fuel plant, in case the natural gas system fails Texas, as it did in February when some power plants couldn’t get fuel. That deserves consideration, but it will come at a cost.
Meanwhile, there’s one fix that should have been made this year, but wasn’t. The Railroad Commission hasn’t taken full steps to require natural gas providers to meet weatherization standards that their electricity counterparts must meet.
And this is where Brad Jones has to hope that, if we have similar weather this winter, his efforts to weatherize the electricity system are not undermined by fuel shortages. A natural gas power plant, all wrapped up and ready for winter weather, is useless without natural gas supply.
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