Thread by @douglewinenergy

The @PUCTX continues to neglect some of the best solutions for the grid and customers—like energy efficiency and a backstop reliability service—in favor of (acc’g to their own consultant) an untested, complicated mechanism that’ll take 3-4 years to implement. 1/🧵 #txlege

The biggest problem: @PUCTX still has not clearly defined what problem they’re trying to solve. That should be obvious, right? We need to make sure there are never any prolonged outages during a winter storm.

You would think so, but you would be wrong.
#energytwitter 2/

.@PUCTX hired @ethree_inc to find a way forward to increase reliability.

But the $600,000 taxpayer funded study “does not include the extreme cold weather event caused by Winter Storm Uri… Such analysis is beyond the scope of this study.” Really? Wasn't that the point?
3/

It gets worse. @EnergyUT and @FERC and @NERC_Official all said a lack of gas supply was one of the biggest causes of the Uri outages. Apparently the PUCT didn’t believe them, and E3 didn’t consider it either because … (cont)
#txlege #txenergy 4/

“The availability of fuel for thermal resources is not considered in this analysis; all thermal resources are assumed to have unlimited access to fuel when needed.”

"Unlimited access to fuel when needed"?! Well wouldn’t that be great?!
#txlelge 5/

“The potential for fuel limitations is beyond the scope of this analysis,” @ethree_inc wrote.

So a prolonged extreme winter storm like Uri AND the potential for fuel limitations were both beyond their scope. Got it.

So what was in scope
#txenergy 6/

Did you guess bashing #renewables? Apparently a “subset of PUCT Commissioners” want to "exclude wind and solar" from certain payments.

This despite E3 noting that regardless of market structure, a high renewables future for ERCOT would yield $4 billion in savings. #txlege 7/

This is a clear pattern from some state leaders: blame renewables. They did it over the summer and during/after the winter outages.

It’s counterproductive & dangerous. It's time to put the focus where it belongs: keeping the heat on in a winter storm.
#txenergy 8/

Some at the @PUCTX act like the problem is there's too much renewable energy instead of lack of fuel and operational thermal power plants during an epic winter storm.

They paid $600,000 in taxpayer money for a report for which Winter Storm Uri was “beyond the scope” (cont)
9/

...but finding ways to reduce compensation for renewables was very much in scope.

The @PUCTX has yet to hold a town hall or educational event or meaningfully engage the public. I'm pretty sure if they did, they'd be more focused on Uri-like storms. Instead, they're adrift. 10/

So 21 months after Winter Storm Uri, the PUCT is proposing a brand new “mechanism” to redesign the market even though they have done no modeling to see if that system would hold up in a Uri-like winter storm. Great. #txlege 11/

The PUC has better options: the Backstop Reliability Service, according to separate analyses done by E3 for @PUCTX and ICF for @TXConsumer, would be the quickest, most cost effective way to increase reliability.

But neither E3 nor the PUCT Chair recommended it. #txenergy 12/

The PUC and #txlege don’t need a complicated, never used before mechanism that would take 3-4 years to implement. Ramp up #energyefficiency. Implement the BRS.

And commission a study that actually models a severe winter storm to see if further changes are needed. #txenergy 13/

There's a lot more in the E3 report. I'll have another twitter thread on it (including more thoughts on the new "PCM") in advance of the Senate Business & Commerce hearing on the ERCOT market & grid reliability Thursday.
The report is here: interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/documen…
#txlege 14/End