Advanced Energy Perspectives

It was a dark and stormy session for the Texas legislature, dominated by electric power issues surfaced by Winter Storm Uri. With the Texas electricity system under more scrutiny – and more up for grabs – than at any time since restructuring in 1999, we at the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) had our hands full. But when the dust settled and the legislature gaveled out on Memorial Day, the outcome for advanced energy was net positive – even though the legislature missed a golden opportunity to enhance grid resilience with distributed energy resources.

Texas’ February winter weather emergency dominated energy news nationwide. Now it’s dominating proposals in the Texas legislature. Following historic electricity outages, it’s no surprise grid reliability issues have come to the forefront of lawmakers’ priority list, with proposed legislation focusing on everything from distributed energy resources to various commission reforms. We turned to AEE’s PowerSuite to parse out which bills at play in the Lone Star State are generating the most buzz and share the measures we’re keeping our eyes on.

Texas is in the midst of a severe and historic winter weather event, which has led to the worst outages the state has experienced in decades. With over 4 million Texans losing power, all eyes are on the state’s grid manager and market operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and market participants like power plant owners and operators, demand side resources, and other grid assets as they work around the clock to restore the grid to normal operating conditions. Defenders of the energy status quo are also using the occasion to cast doubt on advanced energy technologies – especially wind power, on which Texas is a national leader. But they’ve got it exactly backwards. The troubles in Texas point to the need for more advanced energy, not less. 

Over the summer, headlines proclaimed the news that Tesla, the global leader in electric vehicles (EVs), had decided to locate its next U.S. factory in Austin. Recently, Tesla’s famed founder, Elon Musk, even announced that he would be moving to Texas himself. None of this should come as a surprise. Texas has long been a leader in energy of all sorts, including advanced energy technologies like wind and solar power, so it’s only natural to add EVs to the mix. "Everything's bigger in Texas, and that includes Tesla," said Gov. Greg Abbott in a video interview posted to Twitter. “Tesla is moving here because of the free market principles that allow it to come here and be an innovator without government dictates… Texas will be number one in energy, including clean energy.” By welcoming Tesla, Texas has earned a place at the forefront of the forthcoming electric transportation revolution – and a new analysis shows Tesla could be just the start.