Houston power outages after Beryl highlight benefits of…

Among those customers are many HEB supermarkets, which became ad hoc cooling and emergency supply centers in the wake of the storm. HEB has complained about CenterPoint’s poor network reliability since 2015and joined a multitude of groups protesting CenterPoint’s $100 billion bill200 Million Dollar Generator Plan.

Enchanted Rock customers don’t just use their generators during power outages. They also save money by using them to generate electricity on-site to reduce their need for power during the hundreds of hours each year when the Texas power grid struggles to meet electricity demand during heat waves or cold snaps — and when grid electricity prices can skyrocket.

Distributed gas plants like Enchanted Rock can continue to provide electricity even when large-scale grid disruptions like the ones that left millions without power during Winter Storm Uri make it impossible for large-scale gas plants to generate electricity. They can also be built in much smaller increments than conventional gas plants, Schurr noted. That could make them a much more effective target for the billions of dollars state lawmakers approved last year to fund large-scale gas plants in the name of protecting Texans from grid outages, he said.

What about solar and batteries?

Solar energy is not only clean, it is also increasingly the most cost-effective source of electricity. In the event of a grid outage, solar can provide some of a site’s electricity needs while the sun is shining, and also charge batteries for use after the sun goes down.

Today, most of the large commercial customers Enchanted Rock serves require too much power for solar and batteries to be a cost-effective backup option, Schurr said. Households, on the other hand, can ​“prioritize the loads and say, ​‘I need my refrigerator to work, I will charge my phone, I will run a fan, but I will forgo the air conditioning, TV“The pool pump,” he said.

That’s how Jeff and Jennifer Wright weathered the power outages that followed Hurricane Beryl. They installed rooftop solar panels from Sunrun, one of the nation’s leading residential installers, and two Tesla Powerwall batteries in their Houston home shortly after moving in in 2021 from Puerto Rico, where they lived six weeks without electricity after Hurricane Maria hit the island.

““We knew Houston was prone to hurricanes and severe storms, and we knew we never wanted to be without power like that again,” Wright said. The combined solar and battery installation cost about $100,000.60,000he said. But being able to keep their food refrigerated, their lights on and their phones and computers charged has offered ​““It’s a kind of peace of mind that we can’t put a price on.”

Most Texas utilities don’t offer the net-metering policies that have driven rooftop solar adoption in other states. But the Wrights recently opted for a plan from a retail electricity provider that offers free electricity at night in exchange for higher rates during the day, when Texas faces heat-related strain on its power grid.

By using their batteries to store and use more solar energy during the day, the couple reduced their monthly electricity bill by $165 at around $31Wright said. Those savings won’t offset the cost of their system in the near future, but they help add some economic value to the decision to install it with peace of mind, he said.

““I’ve become an evangelist for solar energy. I know it’s not accessible to everyone at the level we’re at. But if you can afford it, go ahead and do it,” he said. ​“You may not get the greatest system in the history of the universe, but it will keep you moving forward through tough times.

Delivering more distributed energy to those who need it

Compensating distributed energy resources for the value they provide when the grid is up is a critical part of covering the cost of installing them so they are available when the grid is down. It is also important to help people who don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend access these resilience benefits.

So far, however, Texas lawmakers and utility regulators are moving much more slowly to put DERs — both fossil gas and clean options — on equal footing with grid-strengthening investments and central power plants as part of the state’s overall grid reliability strategy, Lewin said.

Take the example of the state focusing on large power plants for its main fossil gas grid reliability plan. SB 2627A state law passed last year calls for the creation of a7.2 $1 billion state-run low-interest loan program to support the construction of new power plants. The law also included an exception1.8 billion for microgrids using gas generators, solar and batteries.

But from today, the PUCT has not yet implemented the process to apply for this $1.8 $1 billion in funding, let alone figuring out how grants and loans will work to support those projects, Lewin said.

Matthew Boms, executive director of the trade group Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance, sits on the committee that advises the PUCT on this microgrid effort. ​“It will probably take Texas at least a year, a year and a half to get this up and running,” he said. ​“We’re now at a point where the technology is a little bit ahead of the policy.” He hopes state lawmakers and regulators will accelerate that work, ​““given the frequency and intensity of these storms.”

Some promising options are beginning to emerge. CenterPoint and Enchanted Rock are working on a plan with the PUCT get up one ​““A community microgrid” in Houston to power an entire neighborhood, Schurr noted.

The concept is similar to the microgrid that utility Commonwealth Edison built in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, he said. That microgrid is anchored by an Enchanted Rock gas generator but also integrates rooftop and community solar systems, batteries, Electric vehicle chargers and other large electrical loads that can be reduced and moved to cushion power drops.

Enchanted Rock’s microgrid customers in Texas have not yet integrated solar or batteries, Schurr said, but ​“There are at least some possibilities for this to happen” in the future.

Elsewhere, smaller solar and battery microgrids are already being built to help recover from hurricanes. Puerto Rico is the target of federal funds and private-sector investment to install solar battery systems in homes and communities. In Louisiana, a coalition of faith and community groups is building them in churches, clinics and community centers that serve as disaster recovery centers. That Louisiana effort won $100 million.250 million in federal grants last year. The funding approved by Texas lawmakers is much larger, Boms noted: “1.8 “A billion dollars is a lot of money. We could do a lot with that to improve resilience.”

Texas is also piloting what could become a revolutionary virtual power plant program that aggregates solar capacity and individual homeowners’ battery capacity. The Texas Aggregated Distributed Energy Resources pilot project launched in early 2018. 2023 and in August approved its first major participant, Tesla, which signed up customers in Houston and Dallas who are now being paid to allow their Powerwall batteries to inject power when the grid needs it.

So far, however, only about 15 has 20 megawatts of VPP The capabilities have been signed up under that program, Lewin said — far less than what other solar-rich states like California have been able to accomplish with VPPs. ​“I think it’s time for the PUC “We really need to take seriously the issue of exiting the pilot project, removing the training wheels,” he said.

Texas has succeeded VPP The program got off to a relatively quick start, said Amy Heart, senior vice president of public policy at Sunrun, which operates battery-powered solar PV plants across the country. But as a member of the PUCT‘s ADER The Heart Working Group also identified some barriers to expanding the reach of VPPs under the program.

““There have been few suppliers who have been able to figure it out from a financial and technical perspective,” she said. One challenge is a rule requiring participating batteries to provide ERCOT Digital status updates every five seconds, which requires installing dedicated and expensive communications technology in every home, she said. Another requirement is that batteries be committed to providing up to four hours of capacity at a time, reducing the value they could provide during short-term grid emergencies.

““One of the opportunities that Texas has is the ability to leverage all of these resources for the benefit of the grid as a whole,” she said. ​“By reducing the barriers and making it more affordable to invest in these on-site generation and storage assets, you will be able to create not only a more resilient grid but also a more affordable grid.”