Utility Dive
Original Article

Texas regulators on Thursday voted to extend the state’s industrial demand response program. Retrieved from Public Utilities Commission of Texas.

Dive Brief:

• The Public Utility Commission of Texas on Thursday voted to raise the budget for the state’s industrial demand response program, known as Emergency Response Service, or ERS, a day after a sweltering heat wave pushed the grid to the brink.
• The Electric Reliability Council of Texas deployed the ERS program on Wednesday for about 3.5 hours and saw demand drop by roughly 1,000 MW, grid officials said at the PUCT’s open meeting on Thursday.
• The expansion adds $25 million to the ERS budget, which previously sat at $50 million. Regulators also signaled a willingness to extend the program further, though some stakeholders had advocated for immediately raising its budget even more.

Dive Insight:

Thursday’s PUCT meeting began on a sobering note, with a public comment period focused on rising bills and the risk an unstable grid presents to vulnerable residents.

“There is absolutely no excuse for our state to have a power grid that cannot support the needs of Texans, especially when we pay ridiculously high electric bills,” Robin Schneider, executive director of Texas Campaign for the Environment, read from comments submitted to her organization this week. Customers with medical issues could die in the event of a power outage, she said, and savings are being depleted.

The ERCOT grid set two new peak demand records this week, and on Wednesday wholesale power prices reached the market’s $5,000/MWh price cap as wind output fell and fossil fuel outages increased. Twice this week the grid operator asked customers to reduce electricity consumption, and on Wednesday it turned to industrial demand response as well.

“A substantial part of the ERS reserve was used yesterday,” PUCT Chairman Peter Lake said. “It was used effectively, to ensure reliability.”

The $25 million expansion is effective immediately, and more could be added, regulators said.

“I’m not sure that the amount that we’re authorizing is enough. But I also know that we can come back and do this again, if we have to,” Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty said.

“We still have a lot of hot days ahead of us,” Lake said. “We’ve got a full half summer ahead.”

Enel North America dispatched its demand response systems in Texas to assist on Wednesday. The company’s Head of U.S. Public Policy Mona Tierney-Lloyd said the state’s population is booming and rising temperatures are stressing the electric grid.

“We think it was a good step by the PUCT to approve increasing the emergency response service budget and the availability of these emergency response resources,” she said. “We also think this year is going to be a proof point on whether that additional $25 million was adequate.”

With energy demand “multiplying” in ERCOT, “encouraging more distributed participation in the market is a good area of focus,” Tierney-Lloyd added.

The Advanced Energy Management Alliance had advocated expanding the ERS program cap to $200 million, in comments filed July 5. “The economic impact of grid outages is enormous, and the cost of additional insurance to help avoid the need for involuntary forced outages pales in comparison,” the group said.

Commissioners received an update on grid performance from ERCOT Vice President of Corporate Strategy and PUC Relations Kristi Hobbs. There have been 30 records set on the ERCOT system in the last 70 days, she said, but reliability has been maintained in part because of new tools authorized by the PUCT.

On Monday, a new peak demand record of 78,264 MW was set around 5 p.m., though Commissioner Lori Cobos noted the system had excess reserve capacity of 5,496 MW at that time. On Tuesday another peak demand record was set, of 78,419 MW, but the system still had 4,487 MW in reserve, she said.

A new record was not set on Wednesday, but lower levels of generation meant the ERS program was deployed.

“There was successful deployment of our emergency response services, and working with [utilities] for distribution voltage reduction,” Hobbs said. “Both of those programs, being very reliable, helped us yesterday to keep from getting to emergency situations.”

CBS Austin
Original Article

(CBS Austin)

AUSTIN, Texas — There was no conservation alert Thursday, as the ERCOT website showed plenty of electric supply to meet the demand. This morning the Public Utility Commission met here in Austin, during a hot week when the electric demand threatened to surpass the supply on two days, triggering conservation alerts. The Public Utility Commission heard comments from around the state, expressing concerns about the cost of electricity after the price cap was hit for four hours — and concerns about losing electricity again.

“From Susan Pardoe of Dallas, 75252. I have severe sleep apnea. sleeping without my c pap could result in death. during the winter outages I had to have family fight to help me stay awake,” read Robin Schneider, executive director of Texas Campaign for the Environment. “The high prices are depleting my social security please help us survive,” she read, before submitting 60 similar comments to the commission. She was just one of several who signed up for public comment.

The supply is one of several issues in front of the commission. The biggest — the record demand.”2022 is on track to be the hottest record in Texas history so I read it is the third hottest summer in us history,”

But Austin-based energy consultant Doug Lewin says there is a lot the commission did not talk about. “I was pretty frustrated by the lack of explanation of what’s going on with the state’s thermal fleet, thermal meaning coal, and gas,” he said. Lewin says coal and gas generated less energy than expected during peak demand Wednesday.