Texas grid regulator eyes big changes for DERs

Largely because of the colossal failures of February 2021, local sources of power, usually referred to as distributed energy resources (DERs), are now, finally, getting some attention.

Texas is a land of contradictions and extremes. Our power grid is no different. It is, simultaneously, both an exemplar of innovation and a complete mess. 

Texas is number one for wind power and is soon to be tops in solar. Texas is also #1 in coal. 

The ERCOT market is wide open. The regulatory and permitting burdens that stop projects in their formative stages in other states, barely exist here. Things get built in Texas and we’re going to need to build a lot more things to transition to a cleaner resource mix. 

But the lack of regulation that helps so much for power plants and transmission projects has a dark side. Lack of even minimal regulation of gas supply and power plants contributed to the longest blackout in modern American history in February, in which at least 246 Texans, and likely more than 700, lost their lives.

One area where Texas is among the worst is on the demand side. Following February, just about every discussion at the Texas Legislature focused on energy supply. But part of the problem was that energy demand was off the charts; Texans needed 15% more than ERCOT imagined in an extreme weather scenario. Largely because of the colossal failures of February 2021, local sources of power, usually referred to as distributed energy resources (DERs), are now getting a moment in the sun.

DERs in the limelight

On April 20, following a discussion among commissioners at the previous open meeting, Public Utility Commission of Texas Commissioner Will McAdams filed a memo asking for comments on DERs. He noted that Texas is up to nearly 3GW worth of DERs with 740MW added in 2021 alone. PUC Staff added some questions in a subsequent memo in the refurbished docket #51603…