Texas
ERCOT Abandons Congestion Plan, Pinpoints Key Texas Grid Weaknesses
HOUSTON, TEXAS – DECEMBER 14: Pablo Vegas, president and CEO of ERCOT, speaks during press … [+]
ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas told his Board during a planning session this week that his agency will abandon a plan to relieve congestion on a key transmission line due to lack of customer response. Vegas said Tuesday that a planned conservation program has failed to attract significant commitments from big power consumers.
“The contract for capacity that was issued to support summer conditions resulted in a very low submission,” he told the ERCOT board. “It’s clear … we need to modify the approach for developing the next set of demand response capabilities in the ERCOT market.”
The issue at hand high-capacity transmission line designed to carry electricity generated by South Texas wind installations hundreds of miles north to the Dallas/Fort Worth market. During mid-day periods of high demand last summer, the line became congested with too much input, causing ERCOT to have to issue conservation warnings on as many as 11 days in August. The agency’s plan to address that issue was to solicit applications for voluntary conservation by major power users near the congestion point in South Texas for 500 MW of consumption, but the solicitation for bids attracted only three applications, all of which were for less than 10 MW.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – JUNE 15: Transmission towers are shown on June 15, 2021 in Houston, Texas. The … [+]
Two Critical Grid Weak Spots
The failure of the plan – and the need to devise it to begin with – highlights a pair of key weaknesses in the Texas grid as currently constructed:
- The fact that the construction of new thermal generation capacity in high-demand regions like the DFW market has failed to keep pace with demand growth; and
- The heavy reliance on costly transmission lines to move power generated by wind or solar industrial sites hundreds of miles to those demand centers.
Where wind is concerned, the problem in the state is that the only regions truly fit to host the big industrial sites are in the West Texas/Panhandle region and in deep South Texas, where populations are sparse. Over the first decade of this century, Texas spent $7 billion to build high-capacity transmission lines called the CREZ lines to carry wind-generated power from West Texas to the Houston and DFW markets. That final tab was 700% bigger than initial estimates provided by wind developers. Additional transmission has had to be added along with the more recent build-out of wind generation in South Texas.
The obsession by the state’s policymakers and regulators to pack the grid with intermittent and often unpredictable wind and solar at the expense of encouraging the installation of additional thermal or nuclear capacity has resulted in an increasingly unstable grid that requires ERCOT to often invoke novel plans like this one. It didn’t get a lot of news coverage, but this past winter, ERCOT even resorted to the extreme measure of trying to convince owners of mothballed coal-fired generation plants to reopen them as part of a plan to avoid blackouts during a major winter storm event.
Help Is On The Way
San Antonio-based CPS is currently in the process of upgrading the transmission line that caused the near-crisis situations last summer, but the anticipated completion date of that project is still three years away. As I reported here last week, help in the arena of new thermal capacity is also on the way after the new Texas Energy Fund to incentivize development of more natural gas generation attracted an overwhelming response from generation companies. But those projects will also take years to plan and build.
Looking out farther into the future, help could also be on the way in the form of modular nuclear power, after Dallas-based Natura Resources received the good news from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that a construction permit for its planned molten salt reactor to be sited on the campus of Abilene Christian University (ACU) will be approved in September.
Texas Senator John Cornyn speaks at an event unveiling the housing for a molten salt modular nuclear … [+]
In a recent interview, Natura CEO Doug Robison told me the project, which is a demonstration project developed in conjunction with ACU, the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, has an anticipated startup date in 2027. The eventual success of that project could spur development of an array of such modular reactors – Robison says the reactor itself is roughly the size of a home refrigerator – that have the advantage of being installed in the middle of major demand centers rather than hundreds of miles distant.
The Bottom Line
Unfortunately, while this set of prospects for a more stable grid to come remain years away from reality, Mr. Vegas and his grid managers and planners at ERCOT will continue to have to devise novel ways to keep power flowing to a rapidly growing array of big demand centers. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.
A small plane crashed among trees in Texas Hill Country, killing all five people onboard, officials said on Friday.
The crash happened in the dark late on Thursday night in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles south-west of the state capital, Austin, the Hays county judge, Ruben Becerra, said in a post on Facebook.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the Cessna 421C crashed around 11.25pm with a pilot and four passengers on board.
“I just heard a loud crash. I felt everything vibrate,” Stacey Rohr, who lives nearby, told local channel KEYE-TV. “Everything was up in flames. It was crazy.”
Cecil Keith said he heard what sounded like an engine backfiring – “pow, pow, pow” – when the plane flew over his house moments before the crash.
“Something was definitely wrong,” he told the TV station.
The plane took off from Amarillo, in north-west Texas, about two hours earlier and was headed to New Braunfels national airport, near Austin, according to the flight history. It crashed not far from its intended destination. Aerial images show the remains of the aircraft destroyed in a wooded area.
Becerra said he would not release the names of the victims until family had been notified.
He said a second aircraft traveling in the area landed safely at the airport in New Braunfels, about 30 miles north-east of San Antonio.
One pilot said he and the Cessna pilot were flying there together, according to air traffic control audio.
“I haven’t heard anything from him,” the pilot says on the recording.
A controller responds: “He started to move erratically and now his track is disappeared from the scope. So we want to make sure everything’s all right with him.”
At least one pilot in the area confirmed the troubled plane’s locator emergency device had emitted a distress signal. The controller called 911.
It was mostly cloudy in the New Braunfels area shortly before the crash and there was a thunderstorm two hours later, the National Weather Service said.
Wimberley, with a population of about 3,000, and New Braunfels, with a population of about 116,000, are both tourist destinations in the Texas Hill Country, drawing hikers attracted to the woody rolling hills and others for tubing on rivers in the area.
EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — State Rep. Vince Perez raised concerns on Thursday about how local voters could be affected after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed the Texas redistricting map to remain for the 2026 elections.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that had blocked Texas from using its redrawn congressional map. The Supreme Court’s decision allows the redistricting plan to remain in place for the 2026 elections.
A three-judge federal panel had previously blocked the new map from being used in November, finding the plaintiffs were likely to prove the state had engaged in racial gerrymandering.
While some Republicans across the country praised the Supreme Court’s ruling, Democrats denounced it, saying it threatens the foundation of the Voting Rights Act.
During a press conference in El Paso on Thursday, Perez said the decision could have consequences for Texans who have been involved in redistricting fights.
“This is very concerning for all of us who have been fighting the redistricting battle right here in Texas,” Perez said.
He added, “The ruling opens the door to unleash more redistricting across the entire state.”
While Monday’s decision will allow the redistricting map to remain for the 2026 elections, questions remain about future elections in Texas and across the country as the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a Louisiana voting map, finding that lawmakers redrew the map in an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, in a ruling that weakens the reach of a key Voting Rights Act provision.
The justices ruled 6-3 that Louisiana’s newly redrawn congressional map relied “too heavily on race.” The map had created a second majority-Black district in the state.
Voting rights organizations have challenged the redistricting maps, citing arguments that it violates the Voting Rights Act.
“With the new maps, there are a series of other lawsuits that are pending that essentially continue some of the same claims that applied earlier, in particular that it violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in putting racial minority groups, Latinos and African Americans, in a position where they are less likely to be able to exercise the ability to choose candidates of their preferred choice,” said Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Brennan Center’s Washington, D.C. office.
WATCH THE FULL PRESS CONFERENCE:
Texas lawmaker warns Supreme Court redistricting ruling could affect local voters (Credit: KFOX14/CBS4)
RECOMMENDED: Supreme Court allows Texas’ redrawn congressional map to stand for 2026 elections
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Texas
How to get FEMA aid, Red Cross help and state assistance after tornado, storm damage in North Texas
The recent wave of tornadoes and other severe weather that tore through North Texas damaged or destroyed homes in multiple communities.
For residents who were impacted, or those who might find themselves in a similar situation in the future, the federal and state governments, as well as other organizations, can help.
Here are some resources to start looking for assistance.
Federal disaster assistance
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, can help provide immediate assistance to find shelter by texting the word SHELTER and the ZIP code to 43362. The agency also offers financial aid for temporary hotel stays for two weeks following a disaster.
FEMA also runs the Individuals and Households Program (IHP), that provides longer-term assistance and services to “eligible individuals and households affected by a disaster, who have uninsured or underinsured expenses and serious needs.”
People impacted by disasters should take photos of the damage, make a list of items that were lost or damaged and file an insurance claim as soon as possible, FEMA says on its website. The request for FEMA assistance can be made before an insurance claim, but FEMA requires proof of an insurance settlement or denial before the request can be considered. FEMA will not cover items what were covered by insurance.
FEMA aid applicants must prove their identity, citizenship status and ownership or occupancy of the damaged home. FEMA may then inspect the home before making a decision on the claim.
Impacted residents can apply online at DisasterAssistance.gov, on FEMA’s mobile app, by phone at 800-621-3362, or in person at a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center.
Texas disaster assistance
Texans can get immediate help from the state by calling 211 or visiting 211Texas.org. The 211 service helps connect people with state agencies and non-governmental organizations to fit their needs.
The American Red Cross currently has disaster relief centers open in both Springtown and Mineral Wells where people can go for food, medicine and emergency supplies. The Red Cross also has caseworkers to help residents with disaster recovery planning, financial assistance and insurance claims.
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