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Texas has taken a very "free market" approach to regulating electricity. I lived there during de-regulation and whatever else happened it didn't lower the price

Texas has taken a very "free market" approach to regulating electricity. I lived there during de-regulation and whatever else happened it didn't lower the price of electricity very much. In my opinion it was an excuse to line some pockets. At any rate there has been zero investment in grid interconnects which could have been much more helpful. ERCOT only has the capacity to source sub-1% of load over the interconnects which is not meaningful. That's one of the ultimate failures in my mind: A relatively small investment in HVDC interconnect upgrades would have allowed the grid to import power - especially from the US Western grid which has not been impacted the way some parts of the US Eastern have. ERCOT is fairly toothless as well. I'm not sure they bothered to issue any requirements for weatherproofing prior to the freeze but they wouldn't be able to do much about it if the generating plants refused to comply. And the Texas Railroad Commission regulates Natural Gas. And by "regulate" I mean let them do whatever they like.

bryanlarsen 6y ago
How fully was it de-regulated? An advantage of regulation is that it generally shields you from lawsuits. If you follow the rules, you generally can't be successfully sued for negligence. If there are no rules more of the responsibility falls on the courts. If things were fully deregulated the producers should be hit with some massive lawsuits from the families of those who died. IANAL.
bcrosby95 6y ago
There have been no investment in grid interconnects because ERCOT does not want to abide by federal regulations.
- bryanlarsen 6y ago
  There are (small) interconnects, yet ERCOT is still not federally regulated.
  - bcrosby95 6y ago
    These are small, and so far the courts have ruled those small interconnects do not open them to federal regulation. There were lawsuits back in the 70s over this. Mess with the status quo too much and that could change. If they want to continue to avoid federal regulation, it's in their best interests to not invest heavily in interconnect.

bryanlarsen 6y ago

How fully was it de-regulated? An advantage of regulation is that it generally shields you from lawsuits. If you follow the rules, you generally can't be successfully sued for negligence. If there are no rules more of the responsibility falls on the courts. If things were fully deregulated the producers should be hit with some massive lawsuits from the families of those who died. IANAL.

bcrosby95 6y ago

There have been no investment in grid interconnects because ERCOT does not want to abide by federal regulations.

bryanlarsen 6y ago
There are (small) interconnects, yet ERCOT is still not federally regulated.
- bcrosby95 6y ago
  These are small, and so far the courts have ruled those small interconnects do not open them to federal regulation. There were lawsuits back in the 70s over this. Mess with the status quo too much and that could change. If they want to continue to avoid federal regulation, it's in their best interests to not invest heavily in interconnect.