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As Texas has issued several close-call conservation notices in 2022, energy policy analysts are drawing a connection between the longstanding policy of subsidies flowing to renewable energy developers and Texas’ electric grid volatility.
A research paper published last month by the Energy Alliance pointed out that despite assurances “everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid” following the devastating 2021 winter storm outages, the Texas grid continues to struggle with reliability and volatility issues. The paper’s author ultimately points the finger at the "political establishment" for failing to challenge ongoing taxpayer subsidies for wind and solar power."
Previous research from the Energy Alliance detailed how taxpayer subsidies to renewable energy developers totaled more than $24 billion from 2005-2021.
Data suggests that Texas’ recent expansion of and reliance on wind energy production is creating problems with the grid’s ability to meet peak demand. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind’s share of Texas’s electricity market has increased 10 times since 2007 with generation from dispatchable sources dropping by about 32%. Research from the Energy Alliance points to where this new balance leads to decreased grid reliability.
As Texas has shed capacity from more reliable sources while onboarding naturally intermittent ones, the grid increasingly comes to rely more on intermittent wind and solar to deliver the reserve capacity needed to meet peak demand events. Should the wind not blow enough during peak demand, the Texas grid faces reliability problems.
"For years, as our state has needed more electricity to fuel its dynamic economic growth, Texas politicians have been funneling billions of taxpayer and consumer money to corporations with multi-billion dollar market caps to subsidize renewable electric generation susceptible to the whims of the weather," said Energy Alliance Policy Director Bill Peacock. "The result is that for two straight years Texans have been left with a grid struggling to keep the lights on.
"The greatest threat to the reliability of the Texas grid is the unwillingness of Austin's political leadership to challenge big business's push for subsidies," he added.
A little more than a year ago, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a letter directing Texas’ Public Utility Commission to take specific and immediate actions to ensure the reliability of electricity on the Texas grid, including to “[a]llocate reliability costs to generation resources that cannot guarantee their own availability, such as wind or solar power.”
To date, the PUC has taken no action related to that subject, critics charge.