Severe thunderstorms slammed into Houston Thursday evening bringing winds upwards of hurricane force over a large section of densely populated Harris County. The storms knocked down trees and crumpled electrical utility towers, knocking out power for 40% of residents. Tragically, four people were killed.
Although this electricity outage was caused by a storm, not by supply or maintenance issues, the fact that 750,000 customers remain without power this morning is a sobering reminder of how dependent we are on the grid. Meteorologists warn that it could be some time until power is completely restored, which is a concern going into a drier week with daily high temperatures in the nineties and overnight lows over seventy degrees Fahrenheit. If it was paired with the kind of extreme heat we have been seeing in Texas in July and August, such a widespread power outage would quickly become extremely dangerous.
Given the expected increases in periods of extreme heat (Texas State Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon projects that we will see four times as many 100+ degree days than we did in the period from 1970-1990), we cannot afford to take any measures to ensure grid stability off the table. It’s time for Texas to throw everything we have at the problem: renewables, battery storage, demand response, and ramping up energy efficiency to reduce demand.
It is not even June and already we have seen calls from ERCOT to conserve our electricity use due to concerns about demand exceeding supply on our electrical grid.
We have had a few hot days, but nothing that I would consider extreme having lived in Texas for several decades. So why have there already been conservation calls? And what does that mean for this summer when the heat really gets here?
ERCOT uses spring and fall, typically a lower demand time of year due to mild temperatures, to take utility generation offline for needed maintenance. That means that if there is a hot stretch of weather during those times, and everyone fires up their air conditioners, there can be concerns about the supply of electricity being adequate.
Our afternoon highs on the days with the conservation calls were only in the upper eighties and low nineties, but it still required more energy than ERCOT was planning for, which led to the conservation calls.
The length of these periods of reliably mild weather are getting shorter as the climate warms. That means that the times electric utilities once relied on for performing routine maintenance on their equipment have gotten shorter and less reliable.
That’s a problem, since the equipment needs ongoing maintenance, especially before the critical summer and winter months.
The questions about whether the grid is ready for the coming summer heat remain, however. The problems Texans have been having with the grid in recent years are caused by increases in demand.
Demand for electricity in Texas has grown significantly in the past decade and is projected to continue increasing at a steep rate. During the 88th legislative session, lawmakers passed bills designed to address this growth in demand by creating a fund to be made available for the construction or expansion of gas-fired power plants.
But energy experts caution that simply increasing supply is not an adequate response to our electrical reliability problems.
For one thing, it takes time to build new fossil-fuel fired electrical generation. Any solutions coming from new generation will be in the future.
What could be done right now to improve the reliability of the grid? What if we could find a way to use the energy we are already generating more wisely, making it go farther to cover the new demand?
Energy efficiency is one easy way we can reduce the strain on the grid without adding a single power plant. Energy efficiency often takes advantage of readily available technology and materials. It uses the electricity we produce more wisely and reduces utility bills.
The cost of building new thermal generation to meet supply is significantly higher per megawatt than the cost to implement efficiency measures which would reduce demand. In an interview, State Senator Nathan Johnson reminded us that two megawatts saved is two megawatts we don’t have to produce.
As energy consultant Doug Lewin said, “These strategies make the grid stronger, and they do it by helping residents save money on power bills. This should be catnip for policymakers.”
Lewin also notes that the Public Utility Commission (PUC) was directed by the 88th Legislature to reduce average residential demand through improved energy efficiency, but they have not yet initiated a rulemaking for that process.
If Texas wants to continue to attract industrial investment and new families to Texas, we need to find a way to ensure the stability of the electrical system. Attempting to solve the supply side by building out new fossil generation facilities without also including common sense ways to reduce demand through energy efficiency is a flawed approach.