Texas

Going it alone with the ERCOT market as currently structured and regulated has been tested and found inadequate, writes a former state utility regulator. “Texas should not waste this crisis.”

The ERCOT market has served Texans well, producing low energy costs and the nation’s leading market for renewable energy. This same system also failed the state’s residents and businesses spectacularly in a moment of great need.

Grid planning fails to consider extreme climate scenarios that a resilient grid needs to handle, said EPRI’s president and CEO. “Traditional planning processes do not represent how resources actually perform under extreme conditions.”

Data firm Lium concluded that ERCOT “probably needed at least another 17 GW of generation” to meet demand as cold winter weather settled in over the state.

For many Texans, this week’s blackouts seem a lot like a 2011 winter storm that was supposed to have ushered in a host of reforms.

Belltown said it is currently working to sell another 870 MW of projects, all of which are expected to close in the first half of this year.

The French energy giant acquired a development pipeline of 2.2 GW of solar and 600 MW of co-located storage assets.

The 50 MW Sunnyside solar project is set to be constructed on 240 acres of former landfill land just outside of downtown Houston.

The 1.3 GW Samson Solar Energy Center will have five phases and supply power to some big-name buyers.

First used with wind projects, a pgPPA manages weather-related risk by settling a facility’s energy transfer based on a proxy generation index, rather than on actual metered generation. Operational risk shifts from buyer to seller.