Texas’ Grid Stability Plan Is Running Out of Gas
By Kamil Cook
The Texas Energy Fund (TEF), touted by lawmakers as a fix to the ERCOT grid after the disastrous February 2021 Winter Storm Uri, has yet to provide a single megawatt of electricity for Texans. That the first megawatt is still years away, at best, makes it clear that using taxpayer dollars to build more methane-burning gas power plants may not be the solution Texans need. Meanwhile, a robust build-out of solar, batteries, and wind has protected our grid from rising prices and potential blackouts since Uri.
There have been issues since the TEF was voted into creation to provide taxpayer-backed, low-interest loans and grants to corporations to build new power plants that run on methane. The first came with one TEF applicant dropping out because its developer fraudulently used another company’s name, and no one found out until it was selected to receive TEF funding. Two other companies approved for the TEF have dropped out because of supply chain constraints. According to a report from Heatmap, the expensive gas turbines needed to get a new plant up and running are in short supply. If you order one today, it could be 2029 before that turbine is generating electricity.
Other issues have arisen from community pushback.
A proposed plant in Sugar Land that applied for but was rejected from the TEF was shelved because of sustained and significant community pushback. Another plant, the Wolf Hollow III plant in Granbury, is being challenged in a State Office of Administrative Hearings court by an organized group of community members who have successfully been awarded a contested case hearing by the TCEQ. And other community groups are forming to stop plants from being built in their backyards, too. No one wants a polluting industrial facility to move into their community.
State leadership has put all their eggs in this basket, which will take years to pay off. While we all wait, demand for electricity continues to rise.
Over 14,000 MW of solar, wind, and batteries have come online onto the ERCOT grid in the last year and a half. These renewables helped prevent rolling outages and expensive wholesale energy costs through the previous few summers. This should be a lesson to Texan lawmakers who insist that our way out of our electricity demand problem is by propping up fossil fuel interests that profit from increasing the grid’s dependence on gas. Methane-burning power plants take years to build; they face community opposition from Texans on both sides of the aisle. And they are more expensive than wind, solar, and batteries. ;
It’s time for Plan B.