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Posts Tagged ‘Public utilities commission’

Solar Backers Rally as Public Comment Period Ends

Posted in Energy, geothermal, Good Government, green jobs, renewable portfolio standard, Renewables, solar, Utilities, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2012 |

Advocates fault PUC for turning a blind eye to industry as Texas falls behind

Solar energy backers rallied outside the Texas Public Utility Commission [last] week seeking enforcement of a seven-year-old law that would boost electric generation from geothermal, biomass and the state’s ample supply of sunshine.

Public comment [ended Friday]on proposed rulemaking at the PUC, which has been reluctant to embrace the non-wind portion of the so-called renewable portfolio standards passed by the Texas Legislature in 2005. With those standards calling for generation of about 500 megawatts of renewable power from non-wind sources by 2015 and 3,000 megawatts by 2025, the Clean Energy Works for Texas Campaign sent petitions to the PUC urging it to carry out the law’s provisions. The group estimates that more than 6,000 individuals across Texas and 50 businesses or organizations lent their signatures in support.

“Why aren’t we seeing the clean energy we’ve demanded from our legislators? Why aren’t we seeing the thousands of new green jobs, new energy businesses and new tax revenues for our underfunded schools?” asked activist Dave Cortez of the Texas BlueGreen Apollo Alliance. “Four words: The Texas Public Utility Commission – a government agency run by unelected commissioners who have the power to take state law and misinterpret it, sit on it, lambast it, everything but implement it and ultimately say, ‘No, sorry. We don’t like it.’”

The PUC’s stand, as articulated by Chairman Donna Nelson, stresses the fact that wind power’s success has eclipsed the minimum renewable standards set in the law many times over. And, she argues that the law’s instructions on non-wind energy are not mandatory, a point of contention with solar backers. Moreover, she has said propping up solar power would increase electric bills and that the commission is not in the business of favoring one type of energy generation over another.

Executives from two Austin-based solar companies who attended the rally said each had respectively grown from only two employees to at least 25. And, with the business climate unfriendly to solar in Texas, they said, both companies are making upcoming expansions in a state more hospitable to their interests.

“The bad news is we’re in the process of opening a second office, and the second office will be in California,” said Tim Padden, founder of Revolve Solar. “I would rather be in Dallas, San Antonio or Houston, but the reality is California has taken a stand to support the development of the solar industry seriously by setting statewide goals and local support for their solar companies. I want to see this happen here in my home state. These could be Texas jobs.”

Stan Pipkin of Lighthouse Solar, an Austin-based solar design integration firm said his own company has shown an almost identical job growth and will also be opening offices in California.

“I’m deeply concerned that Texas is not taking advantage of the energy resource we have in most abundance,” he said. “Texas is currently 10th in solar capacity. This is absolutely confounding given our solar resource, our electric demand and our shortage of reserve capacity. It just doesn’t make sense.”

By Polly Ross Hughes

Copyright September 14, 2012, Harvey Kronberg, www.texasenergyreport.com, All rights are reserved.  Reposted by TexasVox.org with permission of the Texas Energy Report.

The PUC has put the non-wind RPS on the agenda for its open meeting this Thursday.  We need you to be there to show your support for moving forward with the rulemaking process.  Please email kwhite@citizen.org if you are interested in attending.  The meeting will be in the Commissioners’ Hearing Room on the 7th Floor of the William B. Travis building at 1701 N. Congress Ave, Austin.

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Solar for our community, Colorado community project sells out in 30 minutes.

Posted in Energy, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 25, 2012 |

When you subtract out shady roofs, renters, and other factors, only about 25% of Americans have a place to install solar power. With the high upfront cost of a complete system, the potential solar universe shrinks further.

That changes with “community solar.”

After a long wait on the state’s Public Utilities Commission to finalize the rules, Colorado’s “community solar gardens” program ( summary here) sold out in 30 minutes when it opened , testament to the pent-up demand for solar among those who don’t own a sunny roof. The program allows individuals to subscribe or buy shares in a local solar project, and in return receive a share of the electricity output.

The community solar garden policy offers several significant benefits:

  • Individuals can go solar without a sunny roof or without owning one at all.
  • Individuals can buy as little as a 1 kW share or as much as produces 120% of their own consumption.
  • The solar garden projects capture economies of scale by building more panels at a single, central location and capture the advantages of decentralization by interconnecting to the distribution (low voltage) part of the electricity grid close to demand.
  • Solar gardens cultivate a sense of ownership and geographic connection, requiring subscribers to live in the same county as their shared solar array. This can reduce political opposition to solar projects and increase local economic benefits.

Fortunately, Colorado isn’t the only state considering this policy. California’s legislature is currently debating SB 843 to allow “community shared solar” and other renewable energy. Several other states offer a blanket policy called “virtual net metering” that lets customers share the output from a single renewable energy facility, although sometimes it’s limited to certain types of customers (municipalities, residential, etc.) and we can do this in Texas.

This post was written by John Farrell and originally appeared on ILSR’s Energy Self-Reliant States blog.

Editor’s Note: California’s SB 843, mentioned in this article, failed to pass.

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ERCOT calls for energy conservation this weekend

Posted in Efficiency, Global Warming, Utilities, tagged , , , , , , , on August 26, 2011 |

Electric Reliability Council of Texas

Image via Wikipedia

Its predicted that the entire state will have record temperatures this weekend. Please take all measures to avoid using unnecessary energy. They might have a hurricane on the east coast but we have a heat wave in Texas and there might not be enough electricity to go around.

Statement from ERCOT CEO Trip Doggett on the need for conservation through the weekend:

Our information indicates this weekend will be one of the hottest on record in some areas of Texas. Electric demand and usage will be extremely high and we need every person to help us conserve electricity between the hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Please help us keep the power flowing to every Texan in ERCOT by turning up your thermostat a few degrees if you’re able, turning off unnecessary lights and appliances and doing dishes and laundry in the morning or after 7 p.m.

Your efforts do make a difference and are appreciated.

Conservation Tips
Consumers can help by shutting off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances between 3 and 7 p.m., and delaying laundry and other activities requiring electricity-consuming appliances until later in the evening. Other conservation tips from the Public Utility Commission’s “Powerful Advice” include:
• Turn off all unnecessary lights, appliances, and electronic equipment.
• When at home, close blinds and drapes that get direct sun, set air conditioning thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, and use fans in occupied rooms to feel cooler.
• When away from home, set air conditioning thermostats to 85 degrees and turn all fans off before you leave. Block the sun by closing blinds or drapes on windows that will get direct sun.
• Do not use your dishwasher, laundry equipment, hair dryers, coffee makers, or other home appliances during the peak hours of 3 to 7 p.m.
• Avoid opening refrigerators or freezers more than necessary.
• Use microwaves for cooking instead of an electric range or oven.
• Set your pool pump to run in the early morning or evening instead of the afternoon.

Businesses should minimize the use of electric lighting and electricity-consuming equipment as much as possible. Large consumers of electricity should consider shutting down or reducing non-essential production processes.

Media Contact: Theresa Gage
tgage@ercot.com

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Deregulation has put Texas energy security at risk.

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, Texas Legislature, tagged , , , , , , on August 5, 2011 |

The PUC wants to have a meeting at the end of August to try to figure out how to fix Texas’s experiment of a deregulated generation market, as we look like we are going to run out of energy during what could be ever increasing hot summers.
It seems the current market based behavior doesn’t send proper signals to companies to build new generation.
In addition our grid was designed to be almost completely isolated from the rest of the country so we cannot get help if its needed and available.
Generators use old, outdated generation to reduce costs and even turn off environmental controls to further lower costs at the expense of citizens health and to maximize profits.
The “new” market is based on scarcity pricing but if generation is truly scarce we have rolling blackouts, which are devastating to the economy and kill people.
Before deregulation the Utility commission would request new generation be built in a certain time frame and capacity and pay a preset profit margin to the companies that participated. They did the same thing with transmission lines and retail costs.
These are critical infrastructure needs and were protected from the swings of the financial and other markets. The process was covered under the term Total Resource Planning.
Now with the current heat wave and over a decade of deregulated markets we face the possibility that there will not be enough generation to meet the needs of Texas. We have many old and highly polluting plants that resemble the old steam locomotives of the 1800’s carting around a bin of coal to burn rocks and boil water. A larger amount of our critical infrastructure also consists of ancient natural gas “steamer” plants that are only run around 400 hours a year and are also highly polluting and have proven not to be very reliable but highly profitable.
Compare that to the newer generation of combined cycle gas turbines that resemble a jet engine and have several additional generators attached to it to recover the excess heat to generate even more energy with low stack emissions.
We have harvested significant amounts of non-polluting wind energy (coastal wind is over-performing expectations during the current crises) but the majority is located in just one region (West Texas) leading to problems of transmission congestion and generation variability. Some progress has been made on building wind projects in the areas along the Texas coast that provide energy much closer to the time that its needed, but more needs to be done.
Texas has made very little progress on adding an solar generation (that would provide energy when its needed most) because of a lack of policy leadership at the legislature and the PUC.

Now the PUC wants to tinker with the market to see if it can artificially raise the price of energy by using a “proxy” price as in “we will pay you more because our market system isn’t working, so pretty please build some new generators”.

This is a hell of a way to provide the resources that Texans need. Its time to get rid of the old smoking wreaks of generation plants that are carrying the load, sucking up our ever shrinking water supplies and fouling our air, and go to a controlled “regulated” modernized generation plan that uses all our resources with the least impact to our health, environment and wallets.
We used to pay a fair price for services delivered, now we just pay and hope the lights stay on.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas

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PUC Sunset bill give the agency more oversight of ERCOT

Posted in Energy, Sunset, Texas Legislature, tagged , , , , , on March 12, 2011 |

The Public Utility Commission (PUC) sunset bill (H.B. 2134) would give the PUC the authority to approve or change the annual budget of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT),  stipulates that no member of the PUC could work for ERCOT for at least two years after he or she had stepped down, and fines would quadruple (from a maximum of $25,000 per day to $100,000 per day) for any company found to have manipulated the electric market for its own gain under the Sunset bill that will be heard in House State Affairs Committee on Monday, March 14th.

Rep. Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton)

State Rep. Burt Solomons’ House Bill 2134 largely tracks the recommendations approved in January by the Sunset Advisory Commission and includes language that the Carrollton Republican has been advocating for at least two years to cut the number of ERCOT board members who have ties the electric industry.

State Affairs is scheduled to take up the Sunset bill during its hearing that convenes 30 minutes after the House adjourns Monday. The meeting will be held in Room 140 of the Reagan Building northwest of the Capitol.

To see the full text of H.B. 2134, click here.

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TCEQ and Railroad Commission Sunset Bills Filed

Posted in Air Quality, Sunset, TCEQ, tagged , , , , on March 10, 2011 |

Senator Glenn Hegar (R-Katy)

Senator Glenn Hegar (R-Katy) filed a bill (SB 655) to abolish the Texas Railroad Commission and eliminate the three statewide elected positions that govern it and rename the agency the Texas Oil and Gas Commission to be run by a single elected officer who would serve a four-year term.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Government Organization Committee.

The Railroad Commission, a 121-year-old agency whose mission has changed dramatically over its lifespan, and which many have said has grown unwieldly and ineffective, has three elected commissioners who, with their separate staffs, often stumble over one another.  Still, whether a single commissioner would be preferable to three is likely to be the most contentious piece of energy-related Sunset legislation that lawmakers take up this session and even the three sitting commissioners are split on how the agency should be structured.

Hegar’s bill also contains language that would have the newly restructured agency adopt the model of the State Office of Hearing Examiners (SOAH) on rulemaking dispute-resolution matters. It also calls for establishing a $20 million oilfield cleanup fund to be financed by fees from various industry activities.

To see the Railroad Commission Sunset bill, click here.

Senator Joan Huffman (R-Southside Place)

Representative Wayne Smith (R-Baytown)

Meanwhile, Senator Joan Huffman (R-Southside Place/Houston) co-filed the Sunset bill (SB 657) to reauthorize the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality with Senator Glenn Hegar (R-Katy).  A companion bill was filed in the house (HB 2694) by Representative Wayne Smith (R-Baytown).

All of these legislators are from areas of Texas whose air quality is highly impacted by the decisions of the TCEQ and dominated by the oil and gas industry. 

To see the TCEQ bill SB 657, click here.  If you also want to follow the House companion bill HB 2694, click here.

Senator Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) said he plans to introduce the legislation affecting the Public Utility Commission and related agencies before the bill-filing deadline.

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It’s not that easy being deregulated . . .

Posted in Energy, tagged , , , , , on February 8, 2011 |

. . .But deregulation is the color of money
And deregulation can be cool and shopping-like
And deregulation can be big like a variable rate plan, or important
Like a TXU/Oncor, or tall like a wind turbine.

Deregulation of the Texas electric market brought us the “POWER TO CHOOSE.”  You can check out the Public Utilities Commission’s site to learn about electric competition in Texas and shop for electricity providers.  But be forewarned, sorting through the options can be time-consuming and confusing. Customers can pick a provider based on price; whether power is produced by coal, wind or natural gas; the length of the contract; and whether the price is fixed or adjustable, like a mortgage.  But it’s what you don’t know as you sort through all the information that can cost you money.

For instance, the quoted rate might not include transmission and distribution charges, monthly customer charges or other recurring fees buried in the fine print. Some companies may require a deposit, assess a hefty fee if you end your contract or charge higher rates if you use too little electricity. A rate of 10 cents per kilowatt hour might apply if you use a certain amount of power each month; but if you use less, the rate might be 20 percent higher.

So if you are in the market for a new provider, keep these things in mind.  Below we’ve included a list of key questions you might want to ask your provider before signing on the dotted line. (more…)

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Texas Hill Country CREZ (Transmission line) Project Approved

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, tagged , , , , , , on January 23, 2011 |

Brazos Wind Farm in the plains of West Texas

Brazos Wind Farm in the plains of West Texas - by Wikipedia

The Public Utility Commission passed a scaled-back version of a controversial power line project through the Hill Country to bring West Texas wind energy to the urban centers on Thursday, January 20th.  The commission was under a Monday deadline to act on the project.

The three-member panel spent much of that morning tweaking the routes of the lines and towers that will be built by the Lower Colorado River Authority for the project that covers portions of Schleicher, Sutton, Menard, Kimble, Gillespie, Kerr and Kendall counties.

The case had been ongoing for well over a year and was even sent back to the drawing board once due to protests from property owners concerned that the lines would mar scenic Hill Country vistas.

During PUC’s deliberations, Smitherman spoke at length on the need for affordable, reliable power – saying that the state cannot prosper without it. He also pointed out that even though the project is part of a $5 billion package called the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones, the transmission lines would also be available to traditional fossil-fuel generating plant.  And, there is also the potential for utility scale solar in parts of West Texas served by the new transmission lines.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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ERCOT Launched the first phase of NODAL

Posted in Energy, Renewables, tagged , , on December 2, 2010 |

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas ran its “one day-ahead market” under the new nodal configuration yesterday and say that, as of last night, the old zonal market has been laid to rest forever.

Nodal is a market redesign and technology upgrade designed to enable location-specific pricing at more than 4,000 nodes instead of the four large and cumbersome congestion management zones used in the market design lo these many years here in Texas.

The project has been in the pipeline since 2003 and several target dates for taking it live had come and gone over the years. The surcharge passed on to customers has also spiraled, going from about 5 cents per megawatt hour in the beginning to nearly 17 cents.

The increases were needed to keep up with the ever-rising cost estimates that started at around $60 million but ended up at nearly $660 million.

The Public Utility Commission estimates that over time, electric retail customers will see significant savings under the new configuration, but getting it in place has been difficult, time-consuming and expensive.

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