Predictable extreme Texas weather – this time heat, not cold – has again embarrassed the Lone Star State’s fossil fuel braggarts and humbled the state’s go-it-alone electric grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), once again rescued by allegedly unreliable renewables. Fortunately, the state was able to avoid rolling blackouts. The Houston Chronicle reported… More ERCOT Again Abandoned by Fossil Fuels
San Antonio Texas’s city-owned energy utility, CPS Energy, has sued the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), charging that the grid operator during the February deep freeze charged it “excessive, illegitimate and illegal prices.” The utility filed the suit in Bexar County District Court. CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold-Williams said, “During a state declared disaster,… More San Antonio muni sues ERCOT over freeze charges
The congested queue for grid interconnection continues to grow, according to a new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. New generation and storage capacity trying to connect to the U.S. grid in 2023 hit nearly 2,600 GW. The difficulty in connecting to the grid is a major impediment to the transition from the legacy fossil-fuel… More Grid interconnection queue gets longer and longer
Utah. Gov. Spencer Cox last month (Mar. 21) signed legislation to keep the giant coal-fired Intermountain Power Plant operating in the western part of the Beehive State. The Intermountain Power Authority, the public power system that owns the 1,900-MW, two-unit generator, plans to shut it down next year. The legislation may run afoul of federal… More The coal pile: Utah, Tennessee, Texas
The vulnerable Texas electric grid has survived Winter Storm Heather, which brought frigid weather to the Lone Star State and snow and equally frigid temperatures to the East and Middle Atlantic states. Texans, who have become familiar with cold winter weather and searing summer heat bringing statewide blackouts, responded to pleas from the high-voltage transmission… More Texas unharmed by Winter Storm Heather
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (Dec. 11) gave a green light to new, competitive high-voltage electric transmission in Texas, which could also increase the spread of renewables in the state that already has more wind and solar power than any other state. The court denied a request from Texas to consider an appeal from… More Supremes Support New Texas Electric Transmission
As winter approaches, vulnerable Texas dithers and grumbles. Weather resilience is important in the Lone Star State, where intense summer heat and deep winter freezes have often crippled the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state-wide, autarkic electric grid. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 caused many of dollars in economic damage and over… More Is Texas Ready for Winter?
San Francisco’s Pacific Gas & Electric – devastated by recent wildfires – is looking to bury some 10,000 miles of electric transmission lines over the next decade in order to prevent its often elderly overhead equipment from starting fires, at a cost of $15 billion to $30 billion, according to NBC Bay Area News. The… More Transmission Tales: PG&E Underground, Texas Transmission Autarky, State Interconnection Rules
Despite the vilification and the billions of dollars being spent on alternative supplies of energy, fossil fuels are far from vanquished. Oil and gas are doing well in the U.S., and coal is holding its own. This morning (Oct. 20), Chevron announced it is buying Hess Corp. in an all-stock deal worth $53 billion ($171/share).… More Fossil Fuels Flexing Muscles as Chevron Buys Hess
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (is that an oxymoron?) doesn’t just have a problem with unreliable and unpredictable gas-fired generating plants. It has a serious high-voltage north-south transmission bottleneck. ERCOT told the Public Utilities Commission of Texas last week (Sept. 13) in an 11-page report that it came near to ordering rolling blackouts on… More Texas Electric Mess Gets Messier