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Feb 20 • 6 tweets • 7 min read
Still no "in depth operations review of resource availability" during Elliot from #ERCOT.

No presentation has been made to the @PUCTX about the 14.2GW of thermal generation offline 12/23 at 9am or the 30GW offline at some point 12/22-12/24. #txlege #txenergy #energytwitter 1/
SPP put out some easy to read bar charts, so here's one I made, based off @cohan_ds info (I adjusted the rated capacity based on SARA report minus the mothballed plants).

Does this look like a major improvement to you? #txlege #energytwitter #ERCOT
I detailed the many coal & gas plants offline during Elliot in this thread 12/29. #ERCOT has this info, of cousre. It was posted on their website in raw form in December. It's now two months later, still no comprehensive report or root cause analysis.
The best so far from #ERCOT was a report made to the Technical Advisory Cmte, one level below the @ERCOT_ISO Board. But no details on gas vs. coal outages, root causes, actions taken since, etc.

ERCOT Board meets next Tues. #txlege #txenergy
If you want a deeper dive, you can read more here.
#energytwitter #txlege 5/ end 🧵.
douglewin.substack.com/p/what-ercot-k…
By the way, @pjminterconnect put out their report in early January. If @ERCOT_ISO is looking for another way to show the data, here's a good example. Gas &/ coal struggled mightily in PJM, too. They've been upfront about it there. #energytwitter
pjm.com/-/media/commit…

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More from @douglewinenergy

Doug Lewin Profile picture
Feb 7
The Texas energy-only market is, to reprise Churchill, the worst form of energy market except for every other. It needs to evolve but should not be abandoned.

Big Senate hearing about the future of the #ERCOT market tomorrow. #txlege #txenergy 1/
douglewin.substack.com/p/a-reliable-a…
In the last 2 yrs, generating companies added 2,000MW of gas plants and they added another 393MW *last month* alone! There are 2,500MW w/ signed interconnections & another 10,000MW in the interconnection process.

There's no need for a PCM or the state to buy gas plants! 2/
Electric generating companies are also adding wind, solar, and storage, making Texas among the top states in all three. That's good! It saves consumers a lot of money: $1 billion a month last year through August! (And lowers pollution, too!)
#energytwitter
utilitydive.com/news/texas-sol…
Read 14 tweets
Doug Lewin Profile picture
Feb 5
There is massive potential for more #EnergyEfficiency in Texas. EE reduces customers' bills, increases reliability & creates jobs. There are 158,882 EE workers in Texas, according to an @E4theFuture report. Many more could be created by #txlege. 1/
ee.e4thefuture.org
There's massive potential for more EE jobs. #Texas is among the worst states for #EnergyEfficiency goals, and we're 36th per capita in EE jobs.

Even so, EE is the 3rd largest energy sector in Texas w/ 31,000 EE businesses employing nearly 159,000 Texans. #txlege #txenergy 2/
Over 6 million TX homes are >20 years old & pre-date statewide building codes. We could create jobs and make the grid more reliable and resilient by improving the energy efficiency of these homes which could lower energy use (and bills) by >40%. #energytwitter 3/
Read 7 tweets
Doug Lewin Profile picture
Feb 2
About 800,000 Texans are heading into tonight w/out power. It doesn't have to be this way. Distributed energy resources (local generation & storage) along w/ weatherization for homes and buildings could make the grid much more resilient. #txlege 1/
douglewin.substack.com/p/local-outage…
I often hear people say that local outages aren't problems with the power grid. It the job of policymakers & regulators to make sure *all* of it works and is reliable—not just part of it.

The grid is divided into transmission (ERCOT) & the distribution sides... (cont.) 2/
...but it's all part of the same grid!

DER solutions increase reliability for the *entire grid*. They can participate in wholesale markets increasing reliability there and provide power when there are distribution outages. #txlege #txenergy 3/
Read 12 tweets
Doug Lewin Profile picture
Feb 1
Unfortunately, this tweet from last night turned out to be true. 250,000 accounts (probably ~600,000 Texans) are without power right now. About half of those are in Austin/Travis County. Tree limbs are falling all over the place in my South Austin neighborhood. #txenergy #wxtx 1/ ImageImage
Check on vulnerable friends, family & neighbors. Also, close blinds & curtains, put towels or blankets (makeshift insulation) wherever you feel cold air coming in, and then heat your home a few degrees warmer than normal. That way if you lose power, you'll stay warmer longer. 2/
I wouldn't normally advise that but, with temps in the 20s or 30s and little need for secondary resistance heat, demand is fairly low in ERCOT (62GW now compared to 74GW on Dec. 23) so a little extra warming of homes this morning won't cause problems. #txenergy 3/ Image
Read 7 tweets
Doug Lewin Profile picture
Jan 19
The @PUCTX is about to recommend a direction for a new market design called Performance Credit Mechanism (PCM) (aka Pretty much a Capacity Market). It won't fix the problems with the grid but it will cost consumers dearly. PUC has an open meeting on the PCM today. #txlege 1/
The biggest problems with it: it won't solve either of the biggest challenges facing the grid: long cold snaps and summer nights. The "credits" given to generators will be random and impossible to predict. You can't build a power plant on a credit generated at random hours.
Bank of America's energy analysts put out a note this week about the immanent adoption of the PCM: "We see the latest developments as a positive for incumbent IPPs." That's independent power producers like @nrgenergy, Vistra, Constellation & Exelon who will make a killing.
Read 68 tweets
Doug Lewin Profile picture
Jan 16
"Over a two-day period in the run-up to Christmas, the state’s gas processing capacity fell 34%, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy data & analytics firm."

We were told, wrongly, after Uri the only problems w/ gas were bc of power outages. 1/ #txlege
texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…
There were no power outages but gas processing dropped 34%!

*At least* 2GW worth of power plants didn't work due to lack of gas.

This is a massive warning that the reforms from the last #txlege session haven't worked & better regulation is necessary to protect the public. 2/
“It doesn’t give me much confidence that we addressed the gas supply issues we faced w/ Winter Storm Uri,” said @joshdr83, a lead author of @EnergyUT's post-mortem on the blackouts.

Me neither. 3/
#energytwitter #txenergy
Read 4 tweets

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