Renewables are growing on the Texas power grid. Republicans want more natural gas.

Clean energy is growing rapidly on the Texas power grid, but regulators in the Lone Star State are now considering plans that could add fossil fuels.

The trio of zero greenhouse gas emissions — wind, solar, and nuclear power — will provide more than 40 percent of the state’s electricity by 2022. This is a year in which some Texas cities experienced their hottest summer on record, driving electricity demand to record levels. upper. when fans and AC are turned on. Winter also proved stressful, with freezing temperatures last month pushing winter electricity peaks to record levels, avoiding blackouts.

Texas is not alone. Over the past year, states like California have faced their own brush with blackouts as searing temperatures cut electricity consumption while drought in the U.S. West has strained power supplies. Across the country, renewable energy is on the rise, but so are threats to the power grid. Utility regulators are trying to find ways to cope, and Texas — the largest energy producer in the U.S. — could offer a critical lesson.

However, Texas has some unique factors at play.

Texas leads the US in oil and natural gas production, but is also number one in wind power. Solar production in the country has nearly tripled in the past three years. Part of the reason is that Texas is particularly suitable for renewable energy in its grid. Wind turbines and solar panels in Texas have a high degree of “complementarity,” so shortages in one source are often matched by increases in the other, speeding up power production and reducing the need for other generators to step in. intermittent energy sources in the grid.

Coal, meanwhile, has lost more than half of a part of Texas since 2006. For a long time and in many countries, the story is that cheap natural gas from hydraulic fracturing is eating coal lunch in the power grid. Coal also faces tougher environmental regulations such as stricter mercury limits, requiring coal-fired power plants to upgrade equipment, and increasing electricity production costs.

“Combination of strict environmental regulations and low cost [of competitors] that means coal has trouble competing in the market,” said Michael Webber, a professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin.

But in Texas, the natural gas portion of the electricity mix has been on hold around 40 percent for more than a decade. On the other hand, renewable energy is increasing as coal dries up. Wind only began to beat coal in 2019 and is now the second largest source of electricity behind natural gas in the country.

An important factor is that the country has its own internal electricity grid, serving 26 million customers and meeting 90 percent of its electricity needs. It is administered by the nonprofit Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. In the freewheeling Texas energy market, the cheapest sources of electricity are becoming dominant, and wind and solar – with low construction costs, fast build times, and zero fuel costs – have emerged as winners.

Some Texans are also going out of their way to buy renewable electricity. Utilities like Austin Energy offer customers the option of paying extra to buy wind and solar power, and thousands have done so. “As a public utility, Austin Energy’s decades-long shift to renewable energy reflects the priorities of our customers and our city,” Matt Mitchell, a spokesman for Austin Energy, said in an email.

Since there are few grid connections to other states, the Texas power grid avoids Federal oversight, giving the rest of Texas flexibility in setting its own rules. The downside is that Texas has a hard time getting extra juice when its own dynamos run out of steam.

It was especially noticeable in February 2021 when Winter Storm Uri brought cold to the United States. In Texas, more than 4 million customers lost power as temperatures dropped below temperatures in Alaska. The official death toll is 246, although some estimates are higher.

The outage was caused by frozen coal piles and natural gas pipes, which blocked the flow of fuel to the power plant. However, Texas Republicans, including Governor Greg Abbott, blamed wind power for the crisis.

Some lawmakers are now pushing the balance toward fossil fuels. “There are different political figures trying to push gas-fired power plants or deny, ban, or inhibit renewable energy,” Webber said.

Last year, the Texas legislature passed a law that would prevent the state’s pension and investment funds from doing business with companies that “boycott” fossil fuels.

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said one of the legislative priorities for this year is to secure more support for natural gas-fired generation. “We need to level the playing field so that we attract investment in natural gas plants,” Patrick said during a press conference last November. “We can’t leave here next spring unless we have a plan for more natural gas power.”

Andrew Loehman/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

He can ask for a way. With recent winter storms in mind, the Texas Public Utilities Commission, which regulates electricity, is now considering proposals on how to reform the electricity market to improve reliability. This month, the commission approved a proposal it considers technology neutral, but may favor natural gas plants.

While wind and solar power are growing, they are intermittent, and regulators want to make sure there is enough power that can be delivered like natural gas to make up for cloudy days. The new proposal would create a credit scheme that would encourage more of these dispatchable plants to come online and extend the lifeline for some existing generators struggling to compete. But it will also increase the cost of electricity production.

Environmental groups like the Sierra Club noted that the proposal opens the door to other tactics to balance electricity supply and demand, such as energy storage, increasing energy efficiency, and demand response.

As Texas regulators hash out the details of the reforms, other states should pay attention. With climate change pushing average temperatures up, the U.S. power grid is under more pressure than ever, not only from increasing demand and struggling supply, but also from infrastructure being damaged by extreme weather. Clean energy sources may be more abundant than ever, but they are also a threat to the power grid.