June 18 — ERCOT leaders plan to revamp their emergency plans for when they need energy quickly during the hot summer months ahead. At an ERCOT board meeting Tuesday morning, the CEO of the state’s largest power grid said the company’s “demand response” plan to add more power to the grid during stressful times was being overhauled.
June 18 — Regulators say Texas is less likely to experience an energy emergency this summer than it was last summer. Thank the weather and renewable energy resources.
June 18 — Current demand hovers around 85 gigawatts, but it is projected to increase to 150 GW in the next half of the decade. Who’s gobbling all these gigawatts? Bitcoin, it turns out. More than 50% of that new demand is expected to come from the increasing number of crypto mining operations and data centers in the Permian Basin. Crypto mining is the process by which transactions are entered on the blockchain, and it also puts new bitcoins into circulation.
June 17 — The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that state regulators were correct to raise the price of electricity to its maximum level during a 2021 winter storm, rejecting a challenge from a power generator that said it lost more than a billion dollars in the freeze.
June 11 — The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) said last week that power developers in the state submitted 125 formal applications under the Texas Energy Fund (TEF) for the development of almost 56 gigawatts of new natural gas power generation in the coming years. Deadline for applications was Friday, June 7, for companies, co-ops and municipalities to apply for low interest financing and grants available under the fund.
TCCFUI is comprehensively focused on utility issues for Texas cities! With its volunteer board of city representatives, we work with other state and local organizations to fill unserved city needs.