Texan here. Some things to know about this general topic: (1) After the huge power outages in February 2021, state government promised various improvements (we

Texan here. Some things to know about this general topic: (1) After the huge power outages in February 2021, state government promised various improvements (weatherization, etc.) would be made. Trust in them is low, but it's true that in the next winter (2022), we didn't have any significant power outages. We also didn't have such extreme cold weather, though. (2) The state's population has increased rapidly in the last decade, and construction of power plants has not kept pace. This is one of the main reasons for the outages. (3) Because of (2), price volatility has been crazy. Investors have added quite a lot of battery storage to the grid recently hoping to capitalize on this volatility. (It's buy low, store, sell high.) We had record demand this last summer because the insane heat wave, and the batteries helped us ride that out with no significant outages[1]. (4) Texas has a big budget surplus, and in the recent election, there were several propositions of the form "should Texas spend X billion dollars on Y?" One of them was Proposition 7, which creates a $10 billion fund for the grid, mainly power generation. It passed[2]. Basically only fossil fuel plants are eligible, and true to form for Texas government, they did not mention that on the ballot. In my own opinion, since it will take time to build more generation, we are probably not in great shape for the next few years, but there does seem to be deliberate action that should move us in the direction of reliability. When it comes to renewability and climate change, the state doesn't seem to care about that, but at least (through dumb luck) we are getting some grid battery storage as a consolation prize. (I support efforts to fight climate change, so I'm trying to find a silver lining here.) --- [1] https://www.utilitydive.com/news/battery-storage-texas-reliability-grid-benefits/695982/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/battery-storage-texas-relia... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texans-pass-amendment-that-aims-enhance-electric-grid-reliability-2023-11-08/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texans-pass-amendment-that-...