Turner: Senate Bill 3 adds no 'meaningful reserve capacity' to Texas grid

Government
Mayor sylvester turner
Mayor Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) | Facebook/Sylvester Turner

The power grids in Texas have struggled to keep up with the summer electricity demand only adding to the number of Texans who are frustrated over the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' (ERCOT) ability to keep both the lights and air conditioning units on.

Mayor Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) has called out the legislature for not making fixing the state's energy issues a top priority.

"Senate Bill 3 does not add any meaningful reserve capacity to the Texas Grid and now and this summer Texas is facing rolling blackouts," Turner wrote in a tweet. "The legislature spent too much time on other things and not enough time on fixing #ERCOT." 

According to Legiscan, Senate Bill 3 relates "to preparing for, preventing and responding to weather emergencies and power outages."

"During the winter storm, too many Texans were left without heat or power for days on end, and I immediately made reforming ERCOT and weatherizing the power system emergency items," Abbott said in a release on the governor's website

Senate Bill 3 took effect on June 8, the same day Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) signed it into law. 

"We promised not to leave session until we fixed these problems, and I am proud to say we kept that promise. These laws will improve the reliability of the electric grid and help ensure these problems never happen again," Abbott said in the statement. 

Even so, ERCOT issued a conservation alert on June 14 as peak demand exceeded and the temperatures rose. KHOU reported ERCOT asked residents to limit their electricity consumption for five days. 

With summer only just beginning and the grid once again showing its vulnerability, the Lone Star State faces the possibility of rolling blackouts, according to KHOU.

Texans can get up to the minute information on the grid situation by checking out the "Daily Outlook" on www.ercot.com where they'll find both how much energy is available and how much is being used.