WhatÂ’s up with your home? If itÂ’s energy usage, TXU EnergyÂ’s latest energy savings solution can help you bring that back down to earth.
The Brighten Personal Energy Advisor is an interactive tool that helps you see your at-home energy habits and household details that affect how much energy you use. Based on your own real-world details, the tool provides personalized tips that can help you save energy – and, ultimately, money on your electricity bills.
The new, enhanced Brighten Personal Energy Advisor is a simple and straightforward tool that provides a comprehensive solution for reducing your energy consumption at home. Its recommendations are provided as online tips and how-to videos that can help you avoid wasting energy via things like air leaks, faulty thermostats, insufficient insulation, water heater settings, HVAC inefficiency and more. The free tool is accessible 24/7 for anyone, and TXU Energy customers can use it as a guide for making energy-saving changes at home, saving project status, and returning later for updates.
You can access the tool at txu.com/energyadvisor and answer a series of household energy questions that take just a few minutes to complete. After reviewing details like the size of your home, number of thermostats, the age of heating and cooling units and appliances and other details, the tool delivers customized recommendations that can help you conserve energy.
The Brighten Personal Energy Advisor allows you to create a personalized Energy Savings Plan for your home or multiple homes and provides how-to guidance for the changes it suggests. For each do-it-yourself task, it shares useful details like the skill and effort levels required for each project, the tools and materials youÂ’ll need to complete them, and information on choosing and purchasing needed materials. It also provides useful DIY videos that walk you, step-by-step, through how to make the suggested changes at home.
You can choose which recommended activities you want to add to your working “To Do” list. And, for TXU Energy customers, it stores the ongoing plan — and any changes you make to it along the way — so you can track your progress over time.
“The Brighten Personal Energy Advisor is another way we are helping our customers better manage their energy consumption and save on their electricity bills,” said Michael Grasso, chief marketing officer, TXU Energy. “Combined with the security of our fixed-rate electricity plans, we’re helping our customers realize their energy savings potential today, tomorrow and for the long haul.”
Complementing the DIY efforts made based on the suggestions they receive, TXU Energy customers with smart meters can also track their actual energy usage every week through the personalized TXU Energy Electricity Usage Report. ItÂ’s a free, weekly email that includes easy-to-read charts and graphs to show your actual electricity use. Customers can opt in to the report for free via txu.com/myaccount.
Clean Energy Industry Support includes tax credits, refundability, safe harbor extensions, EV incentives, and stimulus measures to stabilize renewable energy projects, protect the workforce, and ensure financing continuity during economic recovery.
Key Points
Policies and funding to stabilize renewables, protect jobs, and extend tax incentives for workforce continuity.
✅ Extend PTC/ITC and remove phase-outs to sustain projects
✅ Enable direct pay or refundability to unlock financing
✅ Preserve safe harbor timelines disrupted by supply chains
U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) led 17 Senate colleagues, as the Senate moves to modernize public-land renewables, in sending a letter calling on Congress to include support for the United States' clean energy industry and workforce in any economic aid packages.
"As Congress takes steps to ensure that our nation's workforce is prepared to emerge stronger from the coronavirus health and economic crisis, we must act to shore up clean energy businesses and workers who are uniquely impacted by the crisis, echoing a power-sector call for action from industry groups," said the senators. "This action, which has precedent in prior financial recovery efforts, could take several forms, including tax credit extensions or removal of the current phase-out schedule, direct payment or refundability, or extensions of safe harbor continuity."
"We need to make sure that any package protects workers and helps families stay afloat in these challenging times. Providing support to the clean energy industry will give much-needed certainty and confidence, as the sector targets a market majority, for those workers that they will be able to keep their paychecks and their jobs in this critical industry," the senators also said.
In addition to Senator Cortez Masto, the letter was also signed by Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
Dear Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Wyden:
As Congress takes steps to ensure that our nation's workforce is prepared to emerge stronger from the coronavirus health and economic crisis, we must act to shore up clean energy businesses and workers who are uniquely impacted by the crisis, with wind investments at risk amid the pandemic. This action, which has precedent in prior financial recovery efforts, could take several forms, including tax credit extensions or removal of the current phase-out schedule, direct payment or refundability, or extensions of safe harbor continuity.
First and foremost, we need to take care of workers' health and immediate needs to stay in their homes and provide for their families, and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act is a critical down payment. Now, we must make sure the workforce has jobs to return to and that employers remain able to pay for critical benefits like paid sick and family leave, healthcare, and Unemployment Insurance.
The renewable energy industry employs over 800,000 people across every state in the United States. This industry and its workers could suffer significant harms as a result of the coronavirus emergency and resulting financial impact. Renewable energy businesses are already seeing project cancellations or delays, as the Covid-19 crisis hits solar and wind across the sector, with the solar industry reporting delays of 30 percent. Likewise, the energy efficiency sector is susceptible to similar impacts. As the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in the United States, that rate of delay or cancellations will only continue to skyrocket. Global and domestic supply chains are already facing chaotic changes, with equipment delays of three to four months for parts of the industry. A major collapse in financing is all but certain as investment firms' profits turn to losses and capital is suddenly unavailable for large labor-intensive investments.
To ensure that we do not lose years of progress on clean energy and the source of employment for tens of thousands of renewable energy workers, Congress should look to previous relief packages as an example for how to support this sector and the broader American economy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the Recovery Act or ARRA) provided over $90 billion in funding for clean energy and grid modernization, along with emergency relief programs. Specifically, ARRA provided immediate funding streams like the 1603 Cash Grant program for renewables and the 30 percent clean energy manufacturing tax credit to give immediate relief for the clean energy industry. As Congress develops this new package, it should consider these immediate relief programs for the renewable and clean energy industry, especially as analyses suggest green energy could drive Covid-19 recovery at scale. This could include direct payment or refundability, extensions of safe harbor continuity, tax credit extensions, electric vehicle credit expansion, or removal of the current phase-out schedules for the clean energy industry.
We need to make sure that any package protects workers and helps families stay afloat in these challenging times. Providing support to the clean energy industry will give much-needed certainty and confidence for those workers that they will be able to keep their paychecks and their jobs in this critical industry.
These strategies to provide assistance to the clean energy industry must be included in any financial recovery discussions, particularly if the Trump Administration continues its push to aid the oil industry, even as some advocate a total fossil fuel lockdown to accelerate climate action. We appreciate your consideration and collaboration as we do everything in our power to quickly recover from this health and economic emergency.
Arizona Energy Conservation Alert urges APS and TEP customers to curb usage during a heatwave, preventing rolling blackouts, easing peak demand, and supporting grid reliability by raising thermostats, delaying appliances, and pausing pool pumps.
Key Points
A utility request during extreme heat to cut demand and protect grid reliability, helping prevent outages.
✅ Raise thermostats to 80 F or higher during peak hours
✅ Delay washers, dryers, dishwashers until after 8 p.m.
✅ Pause pool pumps; switch off nonessential lights and devices
After excessive heat forced rolling blackouts for thousands of people across California Friday and Saturday, Arizona Public Service Electric is asking customers to conserve energy this afternoon and evening.
“Given the extended heat wave in the western United States and climate-related grid risks that utilities are monitoring, APS is asking customers to conserve energy due to extreme energy demand that is driving usage higher throughout the region with today’s high temperatures,” APS said in a statement.
Tucson Electric Power has made a similar request of customers in its coverage area.
APS is asking customers to conserve energy in the following ways Tuesday until 8 p.m.:
Raise thermostat settings to no lower than 80 degrees.
Turn off extra lights and avoid use of discretionary major appliances such as clothes washers, dryers and dishwashers.
Avoid operation of pool pumps.
The request from APS also came just hours after Arizona Corporation Commission Chairman Bob Burns sent a letter to electric utilities under the commission's umbrella, like APS, to see if they are in good shape or anticipate any problems given looming shortages in California. He requested the companies respond by noon Friday.
"The whole plan is to take a look at the system early in the Summer," Burns said. "Early May we look at the system, make sure we're ready and able to serve the public throughout the entire heat cycle."
Burns told ABC15 the Summer Preparedness workshop with utilities took place in May and the regulated utilities reported they were well equipped to meet the anticipated peaks of the Summer, even as supply-chain pressures mount across the industry. Tuesday's letter to the electric companies seeks to see if they are still able to "adequately, safely and reliably" serve customers through the heatwave, or if what happened in California could take place here.
"With the activities that are occurring over in California, including tight grid conditions that have repeatedly tested operators, we just want to double check," Burns said.
An APS representative told ABC15 they have adequate supply and reserve and don't anticipate any problems.
However, the rolling blackouts in California also caught the attention of Commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson. She is calling on the chairman to hold an emergency meeting amid wildfire concerns across California and the region.
"The risk to Arizonans and the fact that energy could be interrupted, that we had some kind of rolling blackout like California would have, would be really a public health issue," Peterson said. "It could be life and death in some cases for vulnerable populations."
Ontario Ultra-Low Overnight Electricity Rate lets eligible customers opt in to 2.4 cents per kWh time-of-use pricing, set by the Ontario Energy Board, as utilities roll out the plan between May 1 and Nov. 1.
Key Points
An OEB-set overnight TOU price of 2.4 cents per kWh for eligible Ontarians, rolling out in phases via local utilities.
✅ 8 of 61 utilities offering rate at May 1 launch
✅ About 20% of 5M customers eligible at rollout
✅ Enova Power delays amid merger integration work
A million households can opt into a new ultra-low overnight electricity rate offered by the Ministry of Energy, as province-wide rate changes begin, but that's just a fraction of customers in Ontario.
Only eight of the 61 provincial power utilities will offer the new rate on the May 1 launch date, following the earlier fixed COVID-19 hydro rate period. The rest have up to six months to get on board.
That means it will be available to 20 percent of the province's five million electricity consumers, the Ministry of Energy confirmed to CBC News.
The Ford government's new overnight pricing was pitched as a money saver for Ontarians, amid the earlier COVID-19 recovery rate that could raise bills, undercutting its existing overnight rate from 7.4 to 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour. Both rates are set by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB).
"We wanted to roll it out to as many people as possible," Kitchener-Conestoga PC MPP Mike Harris Jr. told CBC News. "These companies were ready to go, and we're going to continue to work with our local providers to make sure that everybody can meet that Nov. 1 deadline."
Enova Power — which serves Kitchener, Waterloo, Woolwich, Wellesley and Wilmot — won't offer the reduced overnight rate until the fall, after typical bills rose when fixed pricing ended province-wide.
Enova merger stalls adoption
The power company is the product of the recently merged Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro and Waterloo North Hydro.
The Sept. 1 merger is a major reason Enova Power isn't offering the ultra-low rate alongside the first wave of power companies, said Jeff Quint, innovation and communications manager.
"With mergers, a lot of work goes into them. We have to evaluate, merge and integrate several systems and processes," said Quint.
"We believe that we probably would have been able to make the May 1 timeline otherwise."
The ministry said retroactive pricing wouldn't be available, unlike the off-peak price freeze earlier in the pandemic, and Harris said he doesn't expect the province will issue any rebates to customers of companies that introduce the rates later than May 1.
"These organizations were able to look at rolling things out sooner. But, obviously — if you look at Toronto Hydro, London, Centre Wellington, Hearst, Renfrew — there's a dynamic range of large and smaller-scale providers there. I'm very hopeful the Region of Waterloo folks will be able to work to try and get this done as soon as we can," Harris said.
Germany Hydrogen Import Strategy outlines reliance on green hydrogen imports, expanded electrolysis capacity, IPCEI-funded pipelines, and industrial decarbonization for steel and chemicals to reach climate-neutral goals by 2045, meeting 2030 demand of 95-130 TWh.
Key Points
A plan to import 50-70% of hydrogen by 2030, backing green hydrogen, electrolysis, pipelines, and decarbonization.
✅ Imports cover 50-70% of 2030 hydrogen demand
✅ 10 GW electrolysis target with state aid and IPCEI
✅ 1,800 km H2 pipelines to link hubs by 2030
Germany will have to import up to 70% of its hydrogen demand in the future as Europe's largest economy aims to become climate-neutral by 2045, an updated government strategy published on Wednesday showed.
The German cabinet approved a new hydrogen strategy, setting guidelines for hydrogen production, transport infrastructure and market plans.
Germany is seeking to expand reliance on hydrogen as a future energy source to bolster energy resilience and cut greenhouse emissions for highly polluting industrial sectors that cannot be electrified such as steel and chemicals and cut dependency on imported fossil fuel.
Produced using solar and wind power, green hydrogen is a pillar of Berlin's plan to build a sustainable electric planet and transition away from fossil fuels.
But even with doubling the country's domestic electrolysis capacity target for 2030 to at least 10 gigawatts (GW), Germany will need to import around 50% to 70% of its hydrogen demand, forecast at 95 to 130 TWh in 2030, the strategy showed.
"A domestic supply that fully covers demand does not make economic sense or serve the transformation processes resulting from the energy transition and the broader global energy transition overall," the document said.
The strategy underscores the importance of diversifying future hydrogen sources, including potential partners such as Canada's clean hydrogen sector, but the government is working on a separate strategy for hydrogen imports whose exact date is not clear, a spokesperson for the economy ministry said.
"Instead of relying on domestic potential for the production of green hydrogen, the federal government's strategy is primarily aimed at imports by ship," Simone Peter, the head of Germany's renewable energy association, said.
Under the strategy, state aid is expected to be approved for around 2.5 GW of electrolysis projects in Germany this year and the government will earmark 700 million euros ($775 million) for hydrogen research to optimise production methods, research minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger said.
But Germany's limited renewable energy space will make it heavily dependent on imported hydrogen from emerging export hubs such as Abu Dhabi hydrogen exports gaining scale, experts say.
"Germany is a densely populated country. We simply need space for wind and photovoltaic to be able to produce the hydrogen," Philipp Heilmaier, an energy transition researcher at Germany energy agency, told Reuters.
The strategy allows the usage of hydrogen produced through fossil energy sources preferably if the carbon is split off, but said direct government subsidies would be limited to green hydrogen.
Funds for launching a hydrogen network with more than 1,800 km of pipelines in Germany are expected to flow by 2027/2028 through the bloc's Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) financing scheme, as the EU plans to double electricity use by 2050 could raise future demand, with the goal of connecting all major generation, import and storage centres to customers by 2030.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing said his ministry was working on plans for a network of hydrogen filling stations and for renewable fuel subsidies.
Environmental groups said the strategy lacked binding sustainability criteria and restriction on using hydrogen for sectors that cannot be electrified instead of using it for private heating or in cars, calling for a plan to eventually phase-out blue hydrogen which is produced from natural gas.
Germany has already signed several hydrogen cooperation agreements with countries such as clean energy partnership with Canada and Norway, United Arab Emirates and Australia.
ITER Nuclear Fusion advances tokamak magnetic confinement, heating deuterium-tritium plasma with superconducting magnets, targeting net energy gain, tritium breeding, and steam-turbine power, while complementing laser inertial confinement milestones for grid-scale electricity and 2025 startup goals.
Key Points
ITER Nuclear Fusion is a tokamak project confining D-T plasma with magnets to achieve net energy gain and clean power.
✅ Tokamak magnetic confinement with high-temp superconducting coils
✅ Deuterium-tritium fuel cycle with on-site tritium breeding
✅ Targets net energy gain and grid-scale, low-carbon electricity
It sounds like the stuff of dreams: a virtually limitless source of energy that doesn’t produce greenhouse gases or radioactive waste. That’s the promise of nuclear fusion, often described as the holy grail of clean energy by proponents, which for decades has been nothing more than a fantasy due to insurmountable technical challenges. But things are heating up in what has turned into a race to create what amounts to an artificial sun here on Earth, one that can provide power for our kettles, cars and light bulbs.
Today’s nuclear power plants create electricity through nuclear fission, in which atoms are split, with next-gen nuclear power exploring smaller, cheaper, safer designs that remain distinct from fusion. Nuclear fusion however, involves combining atomic nuclei to release energy. It’s the same reaction that’s taking place at the Sun’s core. But overcoming the natural repulsion between atomic nuclei and maintaining the right conditions for fusion to occur isn’t straightforward. And doing so in a way that produces more energy than the reaction consumes has been beyond the grasp of the finest minds in physics for decades.
But perhaps not for much longer. Some major technical challenges have been overcome in the past few years and governments around the world have been pouring money into fusion power research as part of a broader green industrial revolution under way in several regions. There are also over 20 private ventures in the UK, US, Europe, China and Australia vying to be the first to make fusion energy production a reality.
“People are saying, ‘If it really is the ultimate solution, let’s find out whether it works or not,’” says Dr Tim Luce, head of science and operation at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), being built in southeast France. ITER is the biggest throw of the fusion dice yet.
Its $22bn (£15.9bn) build cost is being met by the governments of two-thirds of the world’s population, including the EU, the US, China and Russia, at a time when Europe is losing nuclear power and needs energy, and when it’s fired up in 2025 it’ll be the world’s largest fusion reactor. If it works, ITER will transform fusion power from being the stuff of dreams into a viable energy source.
Constructing a nuclear fusion reactor ITER will be a tokamak reactor – thought to be the best hope for fusion power. Inside a tokamak, a gas, often a hydrogen isotope called deuterium, is subjected to intense heat and pressure, forcing electrons out of the atoms. This creates a plasma – a superheated, ionised gas – that has to be contained by intense magnetic fields.
The containment is vital, as no material on Earth could withstand the intense heat (100,000,000°C and above) that the plasma has to reach so that fusion can begin. It’s close to 10 times the heat at the Sun’s core, and temperatures like that are needed in a tokamak because the gravitational pressure within the Sun can’t be recreated.
When atomic nuclei do start to fuse, vast amounts of energy are released. While the experimental reactors currently in operation release that energy as heat, in a fusion reactor power plant, the heat would be used to produce steam that would drive turbines to generate electricity, even as some envision nuclear beyond electricity for industrial heat and fuels.
Tokamaks aren’t the only fusion reactors being tried. Another type of reactor uses lasers to heat and compress a hydrogen fuel to initiate fusion. In August 2021, one such device at the National Ignition Facility, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, generated 1.35 megajoules of energy. This record-breaking figure brings fusion power a step closer to net energy gain, but most hopes are still pinned on tokamak reactors rather than lasers.
In June 2021, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor maintained a plasma for 101 seconds at 120,000,000°C. Before that, the record was 20 seconds. Ultimately, a fusion reactor would need to sustain the plasma indefinitely – or at least for eight-hour ‘pulses’ during periods of peak electricity demand.
A real game-changer for tokamaks has been the magnets used to produce the magnetic field. “We know how to make magnets that generate a very high magnetic field from copper or other kinds of metal, but you would pay a fortune for the electricity. It wouldn’t be a net energy gain from the plant,” says Luce.
One route for nuclear fusion is to use atoms of deuterium and tritium, both isotopes of hydrogen. They fuse under incredible heat and pressure, and the resulting products release energy as heat
The solution is to use high-temperature, superconducting magnets made from superconducting wire, or ‘tape’, that has no electrical resistance. These magnets can create intense magnetic fields and don’t lose energy as heat.
“High temperature superconductivity has been known about for 35 years. But the manufacturing capability to make tape in the lengths that would be required to make a reasonable fusion coil has just recently been developed,” says Luce. One of ITER’s magnets, the central solenoid, will produce a field of 13 tesla – 280,000 times Earth’s magnetic field.
The inner walls of ITER’s vacuum vessel, where the fusion will occur, will be lined with beryllium, a metal that won’t contaminate the plasma much if they touch. At the bottom is the divertor that will keep the temperature inside the reactor under control.
“The heat load on the divertor can be as large as in a rocket nozzle,” says Luce. “Rocket nozzles work because you can get into orbit within minutes and in space it’s really cold.” In a fusion reactor, a divertor would need to withstand this heat indefinitely and at ITER they’ll be testing one made out of tungsten.
Meanwhile, in the US, the National Spherical Torus Experiment – Upgrade (NSTX-U) fusion reactor will be fired up in the autumn of 2022, while efforts in advanced fission such as a mini-reactor design are also progressing. One of its priorities will be to see whether lining the reactor with lithium helps to keep the plasma stable.
Choosing a fuel Instead of just using deuterium as the fusion fuel, ITER will use deuterium mixed with tritium, another hydrogen isotope. The deuterium-tritium blend offers the best chance of getting significantly more power out than is put in. Proponents of fusion power say one reason the technology is safe is that the fuel needs to be constantly fed into the reactor to keep fusion happening, making a runaway reaction impossible.
Deuterium can be extracted from seawater, so there’s a virtually limitless supply of it. But only 20kg of tritium are thought to exist worldwide, so fusion power plants will have to produce it (ITER will develop technology to ‘breed’ tritium). While some radioactive waste will be produced in a fusion plant, it’ll have a lifetime of around 100 years, rather than the thousands of years from fission.
At the time of writing in September, researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET) fusion reactor in Oxfordshire were due to start their deuterium-tritium fusion reactions. “JET will help ITER prepare a choice of machine parameters to optimise the fusion power,” says Dr Joelle Mailloux, one of the scientific programme leaders at JET. These parameters will include finding the best combination of deuterium and tritium, and establishing how the current is increased in the magnets before fusion starts.
The groundwork laid down at JET should accelerate ITER’s efforts to accomplish net energy gain. ITER will produce ‘first plasma’ in December 2025 and be cranked up to full power over the following decade. Its plasma temperature will reach 150,000,000°C and its target is to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for every 50 megawatts of input heating power.
“If ITER is successful, it’ll eliminate most, if not all, doubts about the science and liberate money for technology development,” says Luce. That technology development will be demonstration fusion power plants that actually produce electricity, where advanced reactors can build on decades of expertise. “ITER is opening the door and saying, yeah, this works – the science is there.”
Texas Power Grid Blackouts loom as ERCOT forecasts record air conditioning load, tight reserve margins, peak demand spikes, and rising natural gas prices; heatwaves could trigger brownouts without added solar, storage, and demand response.
Key Points
Texas Power Grid Blackouts are outages when AC-driven peak demand and ERCOT reserves outstrip supply during heatwaves.
✅ ERCOT forecasts record AC load and tight reserve margins.
✅ Coal retirements cut capacity; gas and solar additions lag.
✅ Peak prices, brownouts likely without storage and demand response.
U.S. Air conditioning related electricity usage will break records and may cause blackouts across the U.S. and in Texas this summer. Power grid operators are forecasting that electricity supplies will exceed demands during the summer months.
Most of Texas will face severe electricity shortages because of hot temperatures, air conditioning, and a strong economy, with millions at risk of electricity shut-offs during extreme heat, Bill Magness the president of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) told the Associated Press. Magness thinks the large numbers people moving to Texas for retirement will increase the demand for air conditioning and electricity use. Retired people are more likely to be home during the day when temperatures are high – so they are more likely to turn up the air conditioner.
Around 50% of all electricity in Texas is used for air conditioning and 100% of homes in Texas have air conditioners, Forbes reported. That means just a few hot days can strain the grid and a heatwave can trigger brownouts and blackouts, in a system with more blackouts than other developed countries on average.
The situation was made worse by Vistra Energy’s decision to close more coal-fired power plants last year, The Austin American Statesman reported. The closed plants; Big Brown, Sadow, and Monticello, generated around 4,100 megawatts (4.1 million watts) of electricity, enough generation capacity to power two million homes, The Waco Herald-Tribune reported.
Texas Electric Grid Might Not Meet Demand
Texas’s grid has never operated without those plants will make this summer a test of its capacity. Texas only has a 6% reserve of electricity that might fall will because of problems like downed lines or a power plant going offline.
A Vistra subsidiary called Luminant has added around 8,000 megawatts of generation capacity from natural-gas burning plants, The Herald-Tribune reported. Luminant also plans to open a giant solar power plant in Texas to increase grid capacity.
The Texas grid already reached peak capacity in May because of unexpectedly high demand and technical problems that reflect more frequent outages in many states, Houston Public Media reported. Grid capacity fell because portions of the system were offline for maintenance.
Some analysts have suggested starting schools after Labor Day to shift peak August demand, potentially easing stress on the grid.
Electricity Reserves are Tight in Texas
Electricity reserves will be very tight on hot summer days in Texas this summer, Magness predicted. When the thermometer rises, people crank up the air conditioner which burns more electricity.
The grid operator ERCOT anticipates that Texas will need an additional 1,600 megawatts of electricity this summer, but record-high temperatures can significantly increase the demand. If everything is running correctly, Texas’s grid can produce up to 78,184 megawatts of electricity.
“The margin between absolute peak power usage and available peak supply is tighter than in years past,” Andrew Barlow, a spokesman for Texas’s Public Utility Commission admitted.
Around 90% of Texas’s grid has enough generating capacity, ERCOT estimated. That means 10% of Texas’s power grid lacks sufficient generating capacity which increases the possibility of blackouts.
Even if the electricity supply is adequate electricity prices can go up in Texas because of higher natural gas prices, Forbes reported. Natural gas prices might go up over the summer because of increased electricity demands. Texas uses between 8% and 9% of America’s natural gas supply to generate electricity for air conditioning in the summer.
Be Prepared For Blackouts This Summer.
Texas’s problems might affect other regions including neighboring states such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico and parts of Mexico, as lawmakers push to connect Texas’s grid to the rest of the nation to improve resilience because those areas are connected to the same grid. Electricity from states like Colorado might be diverted to Texas in case of power shortages there.
Beyond the U.S., Canadian electricity grids are increasingly exposed to harsh weather that can ripple across markets as well.
Home and business owners can avoid summer blackouts by tapping sources of Off-Grid electricity. The two best sources are backup battery storage and solar panels which can run your home or business if the grid runs dry.
If you have family members with health problems who need air conditioning, or you rely on a business or freelance work that requires electricity for income, backup power is vital. Those who need backup electricity for their business should be able to use the expense of installing it as a tax deduction.
Having backup electricity available might be the only way for Texans to keep cool this summer.
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