@RiotPlatforms

@RiotPlatforms

@RiotPlatforms

@RiotPlatforms

@PUCTX

@PUCTX

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

The Texas Senate dealt a major setback to the efforts of the PUC Chair & some generators attempting to redesign the #ERCOT market, telling them to hold off. The PUCT's biggest mistake? They never defined the problems they're trying to solve. 1/🧵
#txlege
dallasnews.com/news/politics/…

Unfortunately, it seems that #txlege is repeating that mistake. I think there are three major problems we need to solve: (1) prolonged extreme winter storms (2) hot summer evenings & (3) cost.

*There is no one thing that will solve all of these problems*
utilitydive.com/news/texas-law…

@FERC

We need to identify & diagnose the problem correctly. Acc'g to @FERC & @NERC_Official, during Uri, Texas had massive demand (spiked by inefficient heat) & frozen gas supply & power plants (made catastrophic by lack of effective regulation). #txenergy 3/

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1461011229829390336?s=20&t=2sl4tXYyUc46oeSVnKZy4Q

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Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

Big day at #txlege today. Hearing in Senate B&C focused on fixing the grid, proposed ERCOT market changes and in Sen Natural Resources on economic development programs (incl. for energy) and implementation of a bill that bans state investment in sustainable investors #txlege 1/🧵

Here's the first part of the agenda in Senate B&C. Mostly usual suspects. None of the panels will have represention for residential consumers, community groups, renewable energy, battery storage, academia, etc. #txlege #txenergy

You can see the hearings here:

senate.texas.gov/av-live.php

Read 74 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1583090511950143489

FERC & NERC released their winter reliability assessment & it's not good for Texas. In a Uri-like event we would be short "by about 19.7GW," almost as much as Feb. 2021. To the suprise of few, the ERCOT grid still has major problems.
#txlege #txenergy 1/
ferc.gov/media/report-2…

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1583090511950143489

"For extreme winter conditions, such as occurred during Winter Storm Uri, ERCOT indicates the need to allow for a resource derate of 11.5GW. This would reduce available resources to 64.3 GW for an extreme winter condition, which is below the extreme winter peak load of 84 GW...

"...by about 19.7 GW. During extreme winter conditions, while ERCOT can gain 1.6 GW of benefit from operational mitigations, this still leaves a shortfall of up to 18.1 GW. These above-normal winter peak load and outage conditions could result in the need to employ EEAs...

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Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

Demand stayed just below 80GW today. Large customer #demandresponse in the form of a rate structure called 4CP (more in this thread) helped to increase reliability and lower costs. Large customers are paid for their reductions. Small customers are not. 1/🧵
#txlege #txenergy

We won't have a reliable and affordable grid without demand flexibility. It’s possible—maybe—to white knuckle it through a summer with aging power plants at an extra cost of billions of dollars each year. But there’s a better and cheaper way...
#energytwitter 2/

To have a grid that is reliable and a market that is affordable, regulators need to figure out how to incorporate demand flexibility into market design.

*Pay people* to automatically (no action required) shift use to times when power is cheap and plentiful to reduce peaks. 3/

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Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

#ERCOT update: New weekend record broken yesterday w/ 77.4GW; expected to be ~77.5GW today. Very low chance of outages today, somewhat higher (though still low) tmrw when 80.5GW expected.

At 9AM, 6.5GW of gas/coal is unavailable, up from 4.9GW yesterday AM.
#txlege #txenergy 1/

Yesterday, 500MW additional thermal (gas/coal) went offline as the day went on and overnight another 1000MW dropped. Hopefully some of those will come back on as the day goes on.

Remember, if there are rolling outages, they are likely to be short duration, nothing like Uri. 2/

If you want to help, pre-cool your home or business in the AM tmrw. In a well functioning market, if you choose to help, you'd be paid to do this. This function would be automatic & you'd keep the thermostat where you want it in the PM, just a little cooler in the AM. 3/

Read 14 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@Tesla

@Tesla & @ERCOT_ISO are holding a workshop on changes proposed by Tesla to enable more local power sources to contribute to grid reliability & lower costs. @ArushiSF is kicking off the workshop w/ an overview of virtual power plants
#energytwitter #txlege
ercot.com/calendar/event…

Virtual power plants (or VPPs) are aggregations of distributed energy resources, or small energy sources close to or at homes and businesses. Take enough small storage or solar or reductions in demand and add them up and you can reach levels that add up to large power plants.

@ArushiSF

@ArushiSF says DERs are available today but are "unrealized dispatchable assets to ERCOT." @Tesla believes minor changes to existing practice could "immediately unlock grid reliability services from small DERs that can be dispatched as an 'aggregation'" #txlege #txenergy

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Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

It should surprise no one that the #ERCOT grid isn't fixed. There's a good chance there will be outages at some point over the next 3 days. Here's a look at what's going on.
1/🧵#txlege #txenergy #energytwitter

A LOT of thermal power plants are out for maintenance (~16GW) & Friday, more broke: 6 gas plants = to ~3GW, roughly an Austin worth of power. I'll get into why power plants are breaking below.
#txenergy 2/
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

@ERCOT_ISO

Here are four key things to remember as Texans spend the weekend obsessively checking @ERCOT_ISO’s dashboard to see how the grid is holding up. 3/ ercot.com/gridmktinfo/da…

Read 19 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

This Saturday, ERCOT expects 69.3GW of demand, an insane amount for a weekend in early May.

Temps likely to be ~92-93 in DFW and Houston, 95 in Austin, 100 in Midland & 104 (!) in Laredo. These would likely be records (or near records) for May 7.
#txlege #txenergy #txwx 1/5

I believe the previous record demand in May is ~67GW & all time summer peak is 74.8GW. That we would reach that much demand on a Saturday in May is extraordinary. Usually demand is much lower on the weekends. Extreme weather from #climatechange is already happening.
#txlege 2/5

#ERCOT expects 20GW of thermal plants to be offline. Wind expected to be @ 12GW & solar's likely to break a record ~9GW. I expect every battery on the grid will be ready for peak @ 5pm. Still, there will likely be tight conditions. Buckle up.
#txlege #energytwitter 3/5

Read 5 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

First off, I do NOT expect outages this evening. I could be wrong but despite the graph below, w/ temps in the 40s in Houston, there shouldn't be any issues tonight.

But this highlights why storage and dispatchable demand response are needed in ERCOT right now.
#txlege
1/🧵

Demand is high bc inefficient heat is driving the peak higher than expected. Because we have very little committed, paid residential #demandresponse, and most of that peak is residential demand, there's little ERCOT can do about it. This is a policy failure. #txenergy
2/

@maggie_glynn1

Note that the mismatch between supply and demand is not large, and doesn't last very long. If we had more storage and more dispatchable #demandresponse, this wouldn't be an issue at all.

@maggie_glynn1 did a great job explaining this:
#energytwitter 3/
kxan.com/state-of-texas…

Read 10 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@PUCTX

@PUCTX meeting starts in a few minutes (9:30CT). Lots of agenda items, including one (#52373) on the future of the ERCOT electric market w/ major customer cost and reliability implications. I'll tweet about it here.
Livestream here: adminmonitor.com/tx/puct/open_m…
#txlege #txenergy

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1469469726250311681

I put together two threads on the staff memo with the proposed changes.
For reference, the memo is here: interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/5237…
Explanation of Phase 1 proposals here

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1469469726250311681

Explanation of Phase 2 proposals here:

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1471188610363838466?s=20

#energytwitter

There are lots of members of the public in the room with what appear to be paper mache power lines (hard to tell from the feed). Public comment period was changed to 10:30, would normally be at 9:30.

Market design changes will be discussed at the end of the meeting.
#txlege

Read 68 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

Texas' electric market is undergoing a redesign. The implications for everyone in ERCOT w/ an electric bill are huge. I'll translate the jargon in the PUC memo filed this week, summarize key points & describe market participants' reactions. 1/🧵 #txlege #energytwitter

As always, if I got something wrong or if I've misrepresented something (esp. if you're reading this & I've mis-characterized your position), please DM me & I'll correct it. I'm learning & appreciate the constructive criticisms. PUC memo is here:
interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/5237…
#txlege

The memo is from staff but is quite obviously reflective of Chairman Lake's position. The first thing in it is Operating Reserve Demand Curve (ORDC). This was created after the 2011 winter outages (and near misses that summer). It adds $ for generators in scarcity conditions.

Read 19 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@PUCTX

Big day @PUCTX as two new concepts are introduced & discussed by Commissioners and stakeholders:

*Dispatchable Energy Credits from Cmsr McAdams
*Strategic Reserve Service from Cmsr Cobos

I'll tweet about it on this thread and put some key links below. #txlege #energytwitter

https://twitter.com/PUCTX/status/1461695840473526272

The dispatchable energy credits would come from a kind of Dispatchable Portfolio Standard akin to the Renewable Portfolio Standard and renewable energy credits. There are traded RECs for renewables, there could be traded credits for DECs soon.
interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/5237…

Cmsr Cobos proposal is to take a phased approach with a lot of quick actions to increase resilience and reliability while building toward a Strategic Reliability Service, mostly designed for winter, which is described here:
interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/5237…
#txenergy #txlege

Read 73 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@w_mcadams

This is a regular open meeting, lots of water rates, tranmission siting, & the like.

Market redesign work session tmrw at 9:30. New proposal dropped by Cmsr @w_mcadams yesterday proposing "Disptachable Energy Credits".

More soon...
interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/5237…
#txlege #txenergy

https://twitter.com/PUCTX/status/1461333394760024071

@PUCTX

There are public comments today. Haven't heard any public comments in many months. Emma Pabst speaks eloquently for #energyefficiency #demandresponse and public participation. Calls for a meeting targeted to helping the public understand what's going on at the @PUCTX

@PUCTX

Misty O'Quinn not testifies to @PUCTX says her daughter had asthma during the outages and couldn't power her medical equipment. Called 911 but no one could come. Had to "slide" to the hospital to get help but they were on generators and it was cold there

"This shouldn't happen."

Read 9 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@juliejohnsonTX

This update is starting now
carrolltontx.granicus.com/mediaplayer.ph…

#txlege #Txenergy
cc: @juliejohnsonTX @mattlargey

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1458197147845898246

ERCOT's Jones tells Carrollton City Council: Generation fleet lost 50,000MW because of equipment failure and lack of fuel supply. That's equal to all of California's peak and was more than half of Texas' entire generation fleet.
#txlege #txenergy

When we lose supply, we have turn to the load side to keep balance. We turn to large facilities that have given us the ability to turn down their usage. (he's talking about #demandresponse which we need more of!!!) Once that's exhausted we have to turn off residential customers.

Read 37 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@PUCTX

This work session at the @PUCTX is starting now. I will tweet about the discussions throughout the day on this thread.

#energytwitter #txlege #txenergy

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1456012880403435522

They begin by delaying a decision on HCAP, the $9000MWh price cap until they've decided on ORDC (Operating Reserve Demand Curve) as the two are related. Their analysis of ORDC change impacts is not ready so they will hold off on any decisions on either.

@HEB

Long discussion here of ORDC. Cmsr. Glotfelty asks What is ORDC for? What problem are we trying to solve? Cmsr. McAdams makes the point that ORDC can incent distributed generation and demand response like at @HEB and @bucees. Talks about varying cooling load for freezers

Read 60 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@PUCTX

Tmrw, @PUCTX will hold an extraordinary work session w/ implications for all Texans w/in ERCOT and relevant broadly to folks who care about energy everywhere. They’re considering about 7-8 different market redesign proposals. Some context in this 🧵. #txlege #energytwitter 1/

First, a few absolutely critical big picture points: (1) no amount of market redesign will prevent winter outages if gas supply is not weatherized which, as far as anyone knows, it is not. #txenergy 2/
yahoo.com/now/texas-isn-…

Point (2): In Feb, our problem was not capacity. We entered Feb with 40+% extra capacity in ERCOT but 50-60% of it didn’t operate. If the PUC focuses on adding capacity, it’s solving the wrong problem. Need to focus on capacity that can operate in extremes
publicpower.org/policy/explana…

Read 15 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@whitmire_john

Starting now. After brief opening statement by Chair Schwertner. Sen @whitmire_john asks why do we have to incentivize power plants to do what they're supposed to? Sen Nichols says they're profit seeking companies and they won't invest unless they can make money.

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1442842803030089728

Whitmire responds: are you talking about providing government subsidies for gas generation? Tells Nichols he's sounding like the Biden Administration. Not sure why we would throw incentives at thermal generation.

#txlege #txenergy

Whitmire says we've reshuffled boards and commissions but we may be worse off now in terms of energy reliability than we were in February.
#txlege

Read 47 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@PUCTX

There are big changes coming to #ERCOT. Are they the right changes? Are they enough? And what do we know about it so far? @PUCTX and @ERCOT_ISO held a press conference today. Some thoughts on the presser and other recent events below. #txlege #txenergy 1/
statesman.com/story/news/202…

@PUCTX

Been a busy month: The presser today, along with a 7/1 PUC work session and 7/13 Senate hearing, And another @PUCTX workshop this Monday on transmission planning and how rotating outages/load shedding are done. Agenda & presentations were posted today 2/ interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/5226…

@EnergyUT

Additionally, the ERCOT Roadmap with 60 action items (aka the 60 points of light) was released last week plus @EnergyUT's report on causes of the Feb outages. Whew. 3/

energy.utexas.edu/ercot-blackout…
ercot.com/content/wcm/li…

Read 19 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

@UtilityDive

Texas' energy woes will persist, and costs will be higher, unless demand side resources like #energyefficiency and #demandresponse, #solar and #storage, are deployed at scale. Alison Siverstein wrote a great piece in @UtilityDive about this. A quick 🧵

utilitydive.com/news/fix-texas…

@PUCTX

Silverstein is a former FERC & PUC staffer w/ decades of energy experience. She wrote that Texas policymakers and the @PUCTX and @ERCOT_ISO need to "shore up grid reliability by aggressively managing electricity demand, not just throwing money at supply-side measures." #txenergy

She writes that over the last decade TX population increased 16% while energy use increased 20%. Much of that increase is driven by inefficient homes & buildings. We have #energyefficiency programs in Texas that deliver savings at 1 penny per kWh. Try to buy energy for that!

Read 7 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1398827862623494145

#SB3 and #HB4492 conference reports are filed. I'll add thoughts to this 🧵as I go through them over the next hour or so.

#txlege #txenergy

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1398827862623494145

#SB3 Headlines:
- Weaker gas regs (House version) are IN the bill.
- Most egregious anti-renewable language is OUT of the bill.
- one minor #demandresponse provision kept IN the bill
- #energyefficiency and most local power gen/storage backup OUT of the bill.
more details soon

@txrrc

Conf report kept House language that required gas supply to be mapped by the Electricity Supply Chain Mapping Committee before any regs are created. Cmte report due 1/1/22, @txrrc rules 6 months later. There will be no gas regulations required before this coming winter.

#txlege

Read 13 tweets

Doug Lewin

@douglewinenergy

A lot going on today/this week on storm response. A quick 🧵 on what to look for this week:

#txlege #txenergy

Today on the House floor, #HB2000 by Huberty to create the State Utilities Reliability Fund, a loan/grant fund for weatherization of infrastructure, will likely come up. It was scheduled for last week but postponed. Huberty was arrested last Friday and was absent. Now he's back.

@erinmdouglas23

At 3CT, ERCOT and the PUCT will hold a Summer Preparedness Workshop. We could see very tight conditions and possibly outages this summer if extreme heat and drought occur.
ercot.com/calendar/2021/…

See this from @erinmdouglas23 @MitchellFerman
texastribune.org/2021/04/15/tex… #txlege

Read 8 tweets

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