Advanced Energy Perspectives

TAEBA members hold a virtual meeting with Rep. Four Price, a candidate for re-election to the Texas House of Representatives, top left.

Texas is the national leader in energy. As the undisputed leader in wind generating capacity with an interconnection queue stacked with almost exclusively wind, solar, and energy storage, and with billions of market potential available for distributed energy resources such as solar, demand response, storage, and electric vehicles, advanced energy is poised to play a key role in accelerating economic recovery, building a more resilient Texas, fostering market competition, and lowering customer electricity bills. Next year, as in all odd-numbered years, the Texas Legislature will meet for 140 days starting on the second Tuesday in January to consider the state’s regular business. The Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) will be actively engaged in the legislative session, working to expand opportunities for advanced energy in 2021. But we recognize that policymakers need to learn more about the many benefits advanced energy can bring to Texas – and the best time to educate them is when they’re running for office.

By now, it is no secret that distributed energy resources (DERs), including rooftop solar, energy storage, customer-owned generation, demand response, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency can save Texas billions of dollars over the coming years. A report published by Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA)  showed that DERs could deliver $5.47 billion of value over 10 years by prolonging the use of existing, functional utility infrastructure and by better integrating DERs into electricity markets. But the value of DERs is not just in the future. Rather, DERs are already providing Texas businesses and Texas residents with many benefits, including reliability, resilience, and cost savings. Read on for five examples of DERs currently at work in the Lone Star State.

In 1999, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 7, opening up the Lone Star State’s electricity market to competition. Since then, Texas has been at the forefront of energy innovation. Now, nearly 20 years later, distributed energy resources (DERs) are the cutting edge of energy innovation, continuing the two-decade process of making the Texas grid more secure, clean, reliable, and affordable. With the COVID-19 public health crisis changing where and how we use electricity, just as it has changed where we work and how we learn, DERs couldn’t have come along at a better time. 

In odd-numbered years, the Texas Legislature meets for 140 days starting on the second Tuesday in January to consider the state’s regular business, with the main objective of passing a two-year budget. This year, as always, bills introduced with potential impact on the state’s energy system covered a wide range of topics, both positive and negative for advanced energy. This session, the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) was directly engaged with or closely watching approximately 80 bills. When the Legislature gaveled out on Memorial Day, the outcomes for advanced energy were net positive, with tax incentives for large-scale renewable energy projects preserved and onerous fees on electric vehicles avoided. And while the Legislature didn’t pass a bill on ownership of battery storage, that issue goes back to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) with some clear indications of legislative preference.  Here are the highlights from a very busy legislative session.

In a win for advanced energy, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) declined to revise the current mechanism for allocating transmission losses at its Jan. 17 meeting, supporting a position taken by the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA). The PUCT also took another positive step by opening a review of EV-related issues to prepare for expected growth.