On April 11, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources heard testimony from Trip Doggett, President and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and Donna Nelson, Chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUC).
Doggett presented the committee with the current outlook on ERCOT reserves over the long and short-term. Over the long-term Doggett emphasized the state needs to find ways to attract new investment for generation, highlighting that within the next couple of years, by 2014, the state will be well below its target reserve margin of 13.75%. Currently, load growth is outpacing generation growth.
ERCOT has created the SARA concept, or the Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy, which is designed to assess near-term conditions. Seasonal assessments are based on the most-current available data on seasonal weather, the status of power plants, and the impact of factors like economic activity and the ongoing drought. ERCOT expects tight reserves this summer and believes there is a significant chance ERCOT will need to declare Energy Emergency Alerts, but does not anticipate the declarations will result in the need for rotating outages. However, a final summer SARA is scheduled for release May 1.
Nelson gave an overview of PUC’s concerns and current efforts. The PUC continues to be concerned with EPA rule effects on investment within the state’s competitive market. Nelson indicated there are a number of causes associated with generation/resource adequacy that are out of PUC’s sphere of influence, but something that can be influenced is investment. Currently the PUC is making administrative adjustments and looking at rules to determine if changes can be made to make generators want to invest in Texas.
PUC is also looking into storage technologies. PUC recently adopted a rule that removes significant barriers to energy storage and is intended to encourage storage development in Texas. The Commission will be publishing another rule that allows ERCOT to conduct a pilot project to determine how storage works with the rest of the grid.
Doggett and Nelson testified that PUC and ERCOT are working together on conservation awareness through social media and other online resources to present a consistent message when conservation is needed and make people aware of times when they need to conserve.