Loss Of Several Large Coal-Fired Power Plants Has PUC Of Texas Concerned, Monitoring Summer Electric Resources

The decisions of generation owners to retire several large coal-fired power plants has significantly reduced the excess supply of electricity that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power region has enjoyed over the past five years…

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) announced in a press release yesterday, they are continuing to closely monitor the forecast for electricity supply and demand for this coming summer.

According to PUC, this summer’s electric supply will be tighter than the past few years.

“As expected, the decisions of generation owners to retire several large coal-fired power plants has significantly reduced the excess supply of electricity that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power region has enjoyed over the past five years,” the press release stated.

Additionally, the press release said, “while this summer will be tighter than the past few years, ERCOT’s market is designed with a number of mechanisms and tools to incentivize increases in supply or temporary reductions in demand to maintain the reliability of the system.”

The current programs and tools available from ERCOT, retail electric providers, and distribution utilities to “incentivize” and “compensate” customers who can “temporarily reduce their demand or operate their own generation if outages of large power plants occur during extreme weather conditions.”

According to the press release “ERCOT reports continue to show continued investment and development of natural gas, solar, and wind power plants, and the PUC remains dedicated to ensuring that market rules support the investment needed for our growing state”

However, Texas’ electric supply will be in the hands of Texans to cut back their electric use or “outages of large power plants” could occur during extreme weather conditions.