The Public Utility Commission of Texas is expected to vote Thursday on a plan to overhaul the market for electricity within ERCOT, with sweeping impacts on ratepayers.
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The action comes after the Texas legislature ordered the PUC to make changes to the state's deregulated power market after the 2021 freeze plunged millions into freezing darkness for days, resulting in at least 200 deaths, and loaded ratepayers with $2.1 billion in debt they'll be paying off for years.
However, a report last year from the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an independent research group, found that if the state invested in programs such as incentives for homeowners to switch to smart thermostats and heat-pump water heaters, demand could be reduced by 11,400 megawatts of demand in winter and 7,650 megawatts in summer. One megawatt is enough to power about 200 homes on a hot summer day.
Existing thermal generators, which use fossil fuels to make power, Gov. Greg Abbott, PUC Chairman Peter Lake.Two iterations of this plan are being discussed. The original would take some older thermal plants out of the competitive energy marketplace altogether and give them fixed-term contracts to stay operational and turn on when reserves are tight, at or near emergency conditions. They would not be used in normal times, just as a back-up if conditions get tight.
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