With Heat Waves Straining The Power Grid, Texas Must Fix Its Subsidy Problem
By: Brent Bennett
July 18, 2022
https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/18/as-...ubsidy-problem/


Who pays for the extra backup power to support the explosive growth of wind and solar on the Texas grid? Right now, no one.

Texas is seeing a hot summer, and with ongoing economic growth, electricity demand within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region has already set all-time records. Still, the hottest days of the summer are likely still to come.

After the widespread blackouts in February 2021, many Texans wonder how long the grid will be able to handle the state’s growing electricity demand — concerns amplified by Beto O’Rourke’s gubernatorial campaign and a supportive media. O’Rourke isn’t likely to win in red Texas in a red-tsunami year, but a summer rolling blackout blamed on climate change and Republicans would help close the gap in the polls.

The ERCOT grid may be fine for the rest of this summer because the past two years have not seen substantial retirements of dispatchable gas and coal generation that the grid relies upon to meet peak demand as was seen in the prior five years. However, the long-term picture shows that dispatchable capacity declining precipitously and being replaced entirely by wind and solar generation that is not being held to any reliability standard. The threat of outages will continue to increase until the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) requires wind and solar generators to pay for the reliability costs they impose on the grid.

The heat waves of the past two months illustrate exactly why the Texas grid is becoming less reliable. The first factor in play is growing demand. The previous demand record of 74,820 megawatts, set in August 2019, was broken repeatedly this summer, with demand reaching 78,419 megawatts on July 12.

The second factor is our increasing reliance on wind generation that does not line up with demand. Wind generation has often been below 6,000 megawatts during the hottest hours of the afternoon this summer, less than 20 percent of its installed capacity and much less than the 9,363 megawatts ERCOT expects from wind during peak summer periods.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

I had no idea that the windmill fraud had invaded Texas so extensively.... they should have been laughed out of the room....