{"id":2762,"date":"2012-06-05T17:56:17","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T17:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2012-06-05T17:58:41","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T17:58:41","slug":"new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/","title":{"rendered":"New ERCOT Report On The Texas Energy Crunch: PUC Tweaks Are A Move In The Right Direction, But Not Enough To Keep The Lights On"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week The Brattle Group released<\/a> their Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)-commissioned report on what Texas can do to make sure we keep the lights on this summer, the next and for many future summers after.\u00a0 As Jim Marston<\/a> discussed in the Houston Chronicle last Friday, the Brattle Group is no stranger to resource issues in Texas: in 2009 they reported on demand response opportunities in Texas and other states in a report commission by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using that work and more recent analyses, the report shows the role that demand response can play in meeting Texas\u2019 future energy needs.\u00a0 Demand response is any change a customer makes in normal electric usage patterns in response to market signals; Brattle recommends developing programs that pay customers a market-based price for their actions, rather than simply asking them to reduce energy during peak hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So what makes such a nerdy idea so important?\u00a0 The Public Utility Commission (PUC) is considering raising offer caps in the wholesale market to better reflect the true cost of peak energy usage in an effort to create a more efficient market.\u00a0 According to Brattle, this move will help, and may even be needed, but \u201creliance on scarcity prices is unlikely to achieve ERCOT\u2019s current reliability objectives,\u201d largely due to extreme weather events which are expected to become more frequent<\/a> as a result of global warming.<\/p>\n

Raising the offer caps isn\u2019t just a purely abstract concept; it means real rate increases for Texans<\/a>.\u00a0 At the same time, Brattle found that Texas could meet 15% of our peak energy needs through demand response alone, but only if ERCOT gets serious about allowing residents and small businesses to participate in demand response programs that have historically been aimed at big industrial customers.\u00a0 Demand response programs mean more money in ratepayers pockets, all while helping to stabilize the grid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Improvements in small programs with a limited scope like the \u201cERS<\/a>\u201d program are certainly helpful, but as Brattle points out repeatedly, those improvements won\u2019t be enough to keep the lights on in the next few years.\u00a0 Hopefully the PUC will direct as much effort into programs like demand response, which puts money back in customer\u2019s pockets, as they have on increasing wholesale offer caps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Demand response is a big piece of the picture but it\u2019s not the whole painting: energy efficiency programs and an expansion of peaking renewable resources like solar and coastal wind power will also play a large role, particularly as we consider a hotter, drier future in Texas with less water to cool power plants.\u00a0 \u00a0The Brattle report lays out some excellent recommendations, demand response among them, and \u2013 as the summer continues \u2013 we\u2019ll be looking into Brattle\u2019s work as well as other initiatives that Texas can take to find its way out of this energy crunch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week The Brattle Group released their Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)-commissioned report on what Texas can do to make sure we keep the lights on this summer, the next and for many future summers after.\u00a0 As Jim Marston discussed in the Houston Chronicle last Friday, the Brattle Group is no stranger to resource …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1508,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38678,254,177,181,27600],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-demand-response","category-energy-efficiency","category-renewable-energy","category-texas","category-utilities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew ERCOT Report On The Texas Energy Crunch: PUC Tweaks Are A Move In The Right Direction, But Not Enough To Keep The Lights On - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New ERCOT Report On The Texas Energy Crunch: PUC Tweaks Are A Move In The Right Direction, But Not Enough To Keep The Lights On - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week The Brattle Group released their Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)-commissioned report on what Texas can do to make sure we keep the lights on this summer, the next and for many future summers after.\u00a0 As Jim Marston discussed in the Houston Chronicle last Friday, the Brattle Group is no stranger to resource ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-05T17:56:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-05T17:58:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2012\/06\/ColinMeehan-183x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"New ERCOT Report On The Texas Energy Crunch: PUC Tweaks Are A Move In The Right Direction, But Not Enough To Keep The Lights On\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-05T17:56:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-05T17:58:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/\"},\"wordCount\":502,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2012\/06\/ColinMeehan-183x300.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Demand Response\",\"Energy Efficiency\",\"Renewable Energy\",\"Texas\",\"Utility Business Models\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/06\/05\/new-ercot-report-on-the-texas-energy-crunch-puc-tweaks-are-a-move-in-the-right-direction-but-not-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on\/\",\"name\":\"New ERCOT Report On The Texas Energy Crunch: PUC Tweaks Are A Move In The Right Direction, But Not Enough To Keep The Lights On - 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