The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has released a report titled Impacts of Environmental Regulations in the ERCOT Region.
According to the report, “There are several proposed or recently finalized U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that could have an impact on grid reliability in ERCOT. Resource owners in ERCOT will need to take actions to comply with these regulations in the coming years, or else retire or mothball the units.”
Also from the report, “The results of this study indicate that the Regional Haze requirements and the Clean Power Plan will have significant impacts on the planning and operation of the ERCOT grid. Both are likely to result in the retirement of coal-fired capacity in the ERCOT region.
The Clean Power Plan will also result in increased wholesale and consumer energy costs in the ERCOT region. Based on ERCOT’s analysis, energy costs for consumers may increase by up to 20% in 2020, without accounting for the associated costs of transmission upgrades, higher natural gas prices caused by increased gas demand, procurement of additional ancillary services, energy efficiency investments, capital costs of new capacity, and other costs associated with the retirement or decreased operation of coal-fired capacity in the ERCOT region.”
Please use the link above to view the entire report.