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The article you linked to cites as a major problem lack of transmission infrastructure, which is going to make a lot of this incoming generation either localize

The article you linked to cites as a major problem lack of transmission infrastructure, which is going to make a lot of this incoming generation either localized or 'in queue'. Is there a plan for this?

vel0city 3y ago
The imbalance of lots of renewable generation happening in the further reaches of the State often far away from the major population centers is definitely a challenge. That real estate is the cheapest to build on and is some of the most prime wind and solar generation areas. The boom of construction of these alternative energy sources has definitely been lagged by the transmission utility corporations, which don't move as fast as their deregulated counterparts. There's definitely plans to expand and improve those lines, but those changes often move slower due to the entrenched utility interests. Here's an article from 2022 talking about these challenges. Many of these challenges still exist today, and can be seen with some of these price spikes. The prices of electricity in the West Hub will often be less than the rest of the state, in fact the Houston hub can sometimes be way more expensive than West because of difficulties delivering power from West to Houston. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/02/texas-high-plains-wind-energy/ https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/02/texas-high-plains-wi... Its harder to find a lot of details of projects to expand transmission lines, but it is happening. > the industry will spend $3.4 billion this year on building 470 miles of new transmission lines and upgrading 808 existing miles, according to data from ERCOT. About $11.6 billion worth of transmission projects are in the planning stages or under construction. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072023/texas-power-grid-transmission-lines-renewable-energy/ https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072023/texas-power-grid... Ultimately though its still usually easier standing up a few wind turbines or wiring up a field with solar panels than massively upgrading a lot of the transmission infrastructure without causing interruption to existing service. People paint the Texas grid with a lot of doom and gloom, and its definitely facing a lot of challenges. But ultimately its expanding renewables faster than pretty much any other state and faces challenges most other states don't have. Pretty much no other state has expanded its energy needs as much as Texas has in the last decade or so. A lot of these challenges Texas is facing are growing pains from massive industrial and residential growth, coupled with climate change and a push to radically redesign our energy mix. People see articles like this with "6k%" price increases and think that's what people are actually paying. But in reality I'm paying for 100% renewable energy at $0.10/kWh including delivery costs, taxes, and fees while being ultimately pretty reliable. Outside of places with massive hydro available, that's pretty cheap and pretty rare for a 100% renewable mix.
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  > The boom of construction of these alternative energy sources has definitely been lagged by the transmission utility corporations, which don't move as fast as their deregulated counterparts. There's definitely plans to expand and improve those lines, but those changes often move slower due to the entrenched utility interests. I'm a bit confused about what you mean by 'regulation'. Are you speaking specifically of renewables as 'non-regulated' because anyone can build a solar station, but only a regulated utility can build a transmission line? To my understanding, the regulation that most people refer to regarding Texas power utilities is pricing, not infrastructure. See: > Another difference between ERCOT and other grid operators, is that the Texas grid operator does not run a capacity market, meaning there is no mandatory capacity mechanism, but instead incentivizes units to remain online for extra capacity through scarcity pricing.[0] Can you explain what you mean by regulation in the context of new power generation and the transmission of that power? [0] https://www.utilitydive.com/news/congress-texas-should-rethink-ercots-go-it-alone-approach-ferc-chair/595335/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/congress-texas-should-rethi...
  - vel0city 3y ago
    > but only a regulated utility can build a transmission line? Yes. Transmission and delivery are still run by highly regulated utilities that still largely operate like traditional utilities. They require approvals to increase prices and generally require more paperwork to do anything, massively limiting their ability to move quickly. If their budgets for the next few years are already set in stone it's hard to convince them to spend another few billion expanding. Pricing for delivery is highly regulated. Prices for energy to consumers is up to the Retail Electric Providers (REPs) which has much looser regulation. Those REPs can devise lots of different pricing strategies. Those are then separate from power producers which bid on production on day ahead and spot markets.
    - Eisenstein 3y ago
      Are you saying you think it would be a good idea to deregulate the infrastructure surrounding utilities? As in, you believe it would be beneficial to let private parties setup their own high-voltage transmission lines and power networks and allow them to interface with the larger grid system, without strong oversight?

vel0city 3y ago

The imbalance of lots of renewable generation happening in the further reaches of the State often far away from the major population centers is definitely a challenge. That real estate is the cheapest to build on and is some of the most prime wind and solar generation areas. The boom of construction of these alternative energy sources has definitely been lagged by the transmission utility corporations, which don't move as fast as their deregulated counterparts. There's definitely plans to expand and improve those lines, but those changes often move slower due to the entrenched utility interests. Here's an article from 2022 talking about these challenges. Many of these challenges still exist today, and can be seen with some of these price spikes. The prices of electricity in the West Hub will often be less than the rest of the state, in fact the Houston hub can sometimes be way more expensive than West because of difficulties delivering power from West to Houston. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/02/texas-high-plains-wind-energy/ https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/02/texas-high-plains-wi... Its harder to find a lot of details of projects to expand transmission lines, but it is happening. > the industry will spend $3.4 billion this year on building 470 miles of new transmission lines and upgrading 808 existing miles, according to data from ERCOT. About $11.6 billion worth of transmission projects are in the planning stages or under construction. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072023/texas-power-grid-transmission-lines-renewable-energy/ https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072023/texas-power-grid... Ultimately though its still usually easier standing up a few wind turbines or wiring up a field with solar panels than massively upgrading a lot of the transmission infrastructure without causing interruption to existing service. People paint the Texas grid with a lot of doom and gloom, and its definitely facing a lot of challenges. But ultimately its expanding renewables faster than pretty much any other state and faces challenges most other states don't have. Pretty much no other state has expanded its energy needs as much as Texas has in the last decade or so. A lot of these challenges Texas is facing are growing pains from massive industrial and residential growth, coupled with climate change and a push to radically redesign our energy mix. People see articles like this with "6k%" price increases and think that's what people are actually paying. But in reality I'm paying for 100% renewable energy at $0.10/kWh including delivery costs, taxes, and fees while being ultimately pretty reliable. Outside of places with massive hydro available, that's pretty cheap and pretty rare for a 100% renewable mix.

Eisenstein 3y ago
> The boom of construction of these alternative energy sources has definitely been lagged by the transmission utility corporations, which don't move as fast as their deregulated counterparts. There's definitely plans to expand and improve those lines, but those changes often move slower due to the entrenched utility interests. I'm a bit confused about what you mean by 'regulation'. Are you speaking specifically of renewables as 'non-regulated' because anyone can build a solar station, but only a regulated utility can build a transmission line? To my understanding, the regulation that most people refer to regarding Texas power utilities is pricing, not infrastructure. See: > Another difference between ERCOT and other grid operators, is that the Texas grid operator does not run a capacity market, meaning there is no mandatory capacity mechanism, but instead incentivizes units to remain online for extra capacity through scarcity pricing.[0] Can you explain what you mean by regulation in the context of new power generation and the transmission of that power? [0] https://www.utilitydive.com/news/congress-texas-should-rethink-ercots-go-it-alone-approach-ferc-chair/595335/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/congress-texas-should-rethi...
- vel0city 3y ago
  > but only a regulated utility can build a transmission line? Yes. Transmission and delivery are still run by highly regulated utilities that still largely operate like traditional utilities. They require approvals to increase prices and generally require more paperwork to do anything, massively limiting their ability to move quickly. If their budgets for the next few years are already set in stone it's hard to convince them to spend another few billion expanding. Pricing for delivery is highly regulated. Prices for energy to consumers is up to the Retail Electric Providers (REPs) which has much looser regulation. Those REPs can devise lots of different pricing strategies. Those are then separate from power producers which bid on production on day ahead and spot markets.
  - Eisenstein 3y ago
    Are you saying you think it would be a good idea to deregulate the infrastructure surrounding utilities? As in, you believe it would be beneficial to let private parties setup their own high-voltage transmission lines and power networks and allow them to interface with the larger grid system, without strong oversight?