ERCOT & the Corrupt PUC (suck), and Other Energy Policy Stuff

The cake is baked...someone just has to put it in the oven...

...and figure out how to power the oven

 

Better hope the wind is blowing and the sun is shining.

 

Surely there is a binder for this industry?

 

Entrust became the next energy company to get booted off the grid (joining the infamous Griddy). Entrust failed to pay around $234 million to power providers and others. Entrust’s customers have been shifted to other companies.

 

Tom Herman took that binder too. That's why the grid crashed - no binder.

 

Wow...that's a lot of money to be paying the CEO of a not-for-profit.

 

Keep in mind that even the newest panels can't create electricity when the sun isn't out. This is why the solar industry is almost non-existent in places like Washington state. Here in Texas where we get close to 250 days of sunshine per year those days are when we get use out of our panels. Panels in Tennessee are effective only on the days that the sun is out, which is closer to about 200 days per year.

Basically what this means is one day 1 a panel can collect 100% of available sun light. 30 years later it will only collect 85% of available sunlight. Available light is still the same the difference is the performance of the panels over time.

Batteries are different because we are talking about storage of electrons versus what panels do which amounts to conversion and transfer of electrons.

 

Tom Herman joke.

 

And it just keeps getting worse...

Texas grid operator made $16 billion price error during winter storm, watchdog says

ERCOT overcharged power companies $16 billion for electricity during winter freeze, firm says

Texas utility commission refuses to reverse $16 billion in ERCOT overcharges

$16 BILLION

"ERCOT kept market prices for power too high for more than a day after widespread outages ended late on Feb. 17, Potomac Economics, the independent market monitor for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees ERCOT, said in a filing."

“It's just nearly impossible to unscramble this sort of egg," Arthur D'Andrea, the new chair of the Public Utility Commission, said during a commission meeting Friday.

 

$16 billion here! $16 billion there! Pretty soon we'll be talking about some real money.

 

Yeah really.

“It's just nearly impossible to unscramble this sort of egg," Arthur D'Andrea, the new chair of the Public Utility Commission, said during a commission meeting Friday.

Well then, I guess there's nothing we can do about that $16 Billion overcharge. We must have run out of CPAs / forensic accountants or something. So let that $16 Billion loss fall where it may.

 

On the consumers, right? Mark my words...there are energy executives that will get some big bonuses when this is all said and done.

 

You’ll have to get deep in the weeds in the articles to piece it together, but I read it to mean that electricity producers were shortchanged by $16 billion.

But yeah, ultimately the consumers usually pay for it.

 

The head of the Texas Public Utility Commission has resigned. She called upon others, including members of the RRC, Legislators, power plant executives, and more to accept responsibility and resign where appropriate.

 

So they resigned as they should but they caused much of the damage .
So what good does resigning now do?

 

It only takes 1-2 days to write a letter to their successor on lessons learned. Let someone else implement the lessons. Likely a better path forward in terms of implementing them since the new folks don’t have the baggage like the last folks.

 

Baggage. The older folks will be forever tarnished and will likely result in over compensating the solution.

 

In some instances, it can make the pursuit of potential criminal charges easier to investigate...

 

So you thought your electric bill was high?

The City of Denton opened their electric bill to find out they owe $207 Million!

The City's annual budget is only $230 Million.

The City has sued ERCOT.

City of Denton sues ERCOT after receiving $207M bill

 

$16 Billion was just too much for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to let go. Patrick is calling on the PUC to fix it.

"According to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's office, PUC ordered ERCOT on Feb. 15 to institute the $9,000 per megawatt-hour cost cap, which is designed to encourage increased power generation during an extreme shortage. However, according to the Independent Market Monitor (IMM), ERCOT incorrectly extended that pricing intervention 32 hours after the power shortage had ended, which resulted in the additional $16 billion in charges."


Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick calls on PUC, ERCOT to fix $16 billion power billing error | wfaa.com

 

Legislative update.

7 bills on fixing ERCOT/PUC/electrical reliability, etc. are out there being debated in the Texas House.

"The proposals represent the "first phase" of the chamber's response to the power outages, House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said. They address weatherizing energy infrastructure and improving coordination between state agencies during a disaster, among other issues.

But the bills do not dictate who will pay for weatherproofing at power plants* and they do not make sweeping changes to the state's deregulated energy market."


* Surprise, surprise. It's easy to issue legislative mandates. Making industry or taxpayers pay for them is another story...

Texas House bills target ERCOT, future preparedness after power outages

 

Mom was pleasantly surprised...her billing cycle for electric closed on 3.1 and her 31 day total due was actually about ten bucks less than the previous billing cycle. And both were bills for less than $100 on a house with roughly 3700 square feet.

Gas bill has not yet come in but based on my preliminary read during SNOWVID21, I am expecting to see her with a bill around $300 for the billing cycle. I suspect that the gas meter spinning that was done when the gas log was fired up was very likely going to have created about a fifty dollar difference over what the gas-fired heater would have done had it been able to heat the house (with no electric, no furnace function).

 

My electric bill was average. I have a fixed rate plan, so that was expected. We'll see about gas when it comes. We use gas heating and a gas fireplace, so I expect it to be on the high side, but not outrageous.

 

Homeowners should have been paid to remove the glut.

 

Here's the ERCOT WTF of the day:

ERCOT Is Refusing to Release Records On How it Prepared for the Winter Storm

Well, ERCOT, if they can't get the records from you via an open records request, you can bet they'll get them from you in discovery in a massive lawsuit, or two (hundred or thousand). It's coming:

ERCOT Power Outage Lawsuits in Texas | Begum Law Group
(just an example of one of many law firms gearing up for the coming ERCOT lawsuits; I don't endorse or make any recommendations about any of them)

 

It is NOT uncommon for agencies to send the request as a stall tactic. They know something is releasable but will take a while to sift through. It becomes easier to request the opinion and buy more time than a simple agreement for an extension by the requestor.

There is about to be a tremendous backlog given Abbott's pronouncement. The timelines for processing requests was effectively stayed during the period of the Emergency Orders. I have agencies that are JUST NOW responding to requests I made last April...meanwhile our client has since been released from prison and the records are no longer needed. The City of San Antonio actually wanted us (and the AG) to believe they had returned people to work the week of Thanksgiving...yeah, brought them back just in time to get two days off....riiiiiiight.

 

Yeah, they'll milk it for time.

I could see Abbott making the ERCOT issues a high priority and possibly pushing them through faster than one might otherwise expect. Abbott likely senses that his political fortunes will be affected by how this ERCOT mess sorts out.

 

Wind Power Is a Disaster in Texas, No Matter What Paul Krugman Says | Robert P. Murphy

 

Mona
That is an eyeopening link. The verifiable data will be ignored to further ither agendas.
Great info

 

D’Andrea, last remaining of the three commissioners of the Texas PUC, has now resigned.

D’Andrea got caught telling investors on a phone call that he would throw the weight of the commission behind stopping the reversal of billions of $ of charges for wholesale electricity during the storm. D’Andrea resigned shortly after the Texas Tribune reported on this. 57 Texans died during the storm. Mostly from hypothermia. Meanwhile, D’Andrea’s public explanation was that it was nearly impossible to unscramble this egg...


This place is corrupt. Rotten to the core. I can’t rib Louisiana and Hawaii for their ridiculous levels of corruption anymore.