{"id":276191,"date":"2023-08-29T13:12:18","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T11:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=276191"},"modified":"2023-08-29T13:12:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T11:12:20","slug":"the-wounded-texas-grid-whos-on-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=276191","title":{"rendered":"The Wounded Texas Grid: Who\u2019s On First?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\u00a0Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cIt is time to do now what was not done in 1999 in Texas. First, deregulate the electricity market, do not re-regulate it under a new regime. That means removing public utility regulation of rates and other terms of service, as well as end the franchise protection over geographical territory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Texas Electric Utility Restructuring Act of 1999<\/a> is approaching a quarter-century. And what a mess has resulted from the misnomer \u201celectricity deregulation.\u201d A monopoly wholesale market under mandatory open-access rules is central planning pure and simple. The idea that a \u2018competitive\u2019 retail market rescues the wholesale market from the knowledge problem and politicization (per Lynne Kiesling, Michael Giberson, etc.) has been turned upside down in Texas and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded of this upon reading a 500-word commentary<\/a> from Doug Sheridan<\/a> on LinkedIn. It is worth reproducing in its entirety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Imagine you\u2019re in charge of the electric grid that services the vast majority of America\u2019s second largest state. You have a problem\u2014demand for power is soaring, and supply is increasingly erratic\u2026 even shrinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re faced with the fact that the wind turbines and solar panels that make up a large chunk of your capacity are often barely producing. And that your underappreciated, overtaxed and undercompensated thermal plants that are supposed to fill the gap are struggling to keep up.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know you have to do something, but you also know you have to answer to a lot of people who don\u2019t want you to do anything\u2014mostly because they don\u2019t want you drawing attention to the problems on your system, lest their role in creating or enabling those problems makes the front page.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sheridan continues by identifying culprits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

You have a governor, who has vowed to keep Texas free from a green energy takeover, but seems weirdly happy to help facilitate just that. You have a confused legislature, who\u2019s slashed your budget and oversight after the last blackout fiasco, which was largely enabled by persons of their own ilk.<\/p>\nYou have a public utility commission of questionable competence, who appointed your bosses and can fire you at any time. You also have a media who are unabashed cheerleaders for overhyped wind and solar generation. They are also ready to pounce on any hint of mismanagement or corruption.<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

Finally, you have a demanding public, who are used to cheap and reliable power and who won\u2019t tolerate interruptions.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So what to do? Sheridan ends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

You try to avoid making any hard decisions. You try to squeeze every last megawatt out of the generators on your system, even if it means risking damage or breakdowns. You try to delay any orders to cut power to customers, even if it means risking instability or collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also position yourself to shift the blame for these circumstances to others than yourself, your organization and your bosses, even if it means ignoring the root cause of your problem\u2014the growing reliance on intermittent and unreliable sources of energy that are incompatible with your grid and its mission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You hope that somehow, some way, you can get through this crisis without anyone noticing how close things are to the edge. You hope that no one will ask you why you didn\u2019t better plan ahead, why you failed to act with greater urgency, why you didn\u2019t invest in more reliable and resilient infrastructure, why you didn\u2019t stick to reliable, dispatchable, and affordable forms of energy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You pray that no one will question your competence, your integrity, or your loyalty. Most of all, you hope no one will realize you\u2019re in charge of a massive and growing house of cards\u2014increasingly pressing your luck and that of the state with each passing day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Sum It Up: Say hello to Pablo Vegas, president and CEO of <\/em>ERCOT<\/a> and the most on-the-spot person in Texas. And wish him luck\u2026 he needs every bit he can get.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Commentary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time to do now what was not done in 1999 in Texas. First, deregulate the electricity market, do not re-regulate it under a new regime. That means removing public utility regulation of rates and other terms of service, as well as end the franchise protection over geographical territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the owners of transmission and distribution assets have the right to use their property as they want without state or federal mandates involving other parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, intermittent generation (wind, solar, batteries) or related transmission will not be advantaged by taxpayers or under regulated rate designs. Private contracting will settle the exact terms in a truly free market. The what, when, where of electricity in the home or business or otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will require new laws to repeal old ones. Ideas have consequences\u2013let the debate broaden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Texas Electric Utility Restructuring Act of 1999\u00a0is approaching a quarter-century. And what a mess has resulted from the misnomer \u201celectricity deregulation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":276198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691821951,691818154,691822157,691821543],"class_list":{"0":"post-276191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ercot","9":"tag-net-zero","10":"tag-texas-grid","11":"tag-wind-turbines-and-solar-panels","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-1061.png?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-19QH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":214271,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=214271","url_meta":{"origin":276191,"position":0},"title":"\u201cElectricity Restructuring: The Texas Story\u201d (revisiting a book gone sour)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"18\/08\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Texas electricity debacle of February 2021 stands as\u00a0the greatest failure in the history of the power industry\u2013if not any other industry in America.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-742.png?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-742.png?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-742.png?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-742.png?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":280997,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=280997","url_meta":{"origin":276191,"position":1},"title":"Texans Left Scrambling For Power As Wind Turbines Take Another Summer\u00a0Vacation","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Texas is littered with solar panels and wind turbines, but don\u2019t expect them to deliver power as and when you need it. 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