Local governments (Travis County, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Lewisville, Mesquite, and Plano) collectively generated and put forth ideas and suggestions to the Public Utility Commission of Texas on how to make the grid more reliable, following the 2021 winter storm Uri and the blackouts and devastation it caused. They stressed that these changes are not mere niceties, but rather essential modifications to the state's current electric utility infrastructure that will protect lives and save billions in damages.
Their suggestions included:
Increasing demand response and energy efficiency programs
diversifying Texas' energy resource mix to improve grid resilience and stability
creating smaller circuits of electricity on the grid, including the ability to isolate essential infrastructures (like hospitals, communications infrastructure, etc.), to make it easier to shift outages more frequently and equitably
consider connecting the ERCOT grid to adjacent grids to enable greater resilience
increase community engagement to ensure an inclusive and equitable market redesign process
However, despite this effort, the plans that the PUCT would eventually adopt a few days later on Thursday, December 15th focused on keeping extra fossil fuel resources online as backup generation.
Cite as
Avery Travis, "‘A life and death matter’: Texas counties, cities sound off on electric market changes", contributed by James Adams, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 1 June 2022, accessed 24 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/‘-life-and-death-matter’-texas-counties-cities-sound-electric-market-changes
Critical Commentary
Local governments (Travis County, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Lewisville, Mesquite, and Plano) collectively generated and put forth ideas and suggestions to the Public Utility Commission of Texas on how to make the grid more reliable, following the 2021 winter storm Uri and the blackouts and devastation it caused. They stressed that these changes are not mere niceties, but rather essential modifications to the state's current electric utility infrastructure that will protect lives and save billions in damages.
Their suggestions included:
However, despite this effort, the plans that the PUCT would eventually adopt a few days later on Thursday, December 15th focused on keeping extra fossil fuel resources online as backup generation.