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Solar, battery capacity saved the Texas grid last summer; an uncertain future awaits
As ERCOT forecasts accelerated load growth due to anticipated data center construction and electrification trends, the current generation mix and market design should garner increased scrutiny.
As Renewable Energy Grows, So Does Spare Capacity in Electricity Generation
The expansion of weather-dependent renewable energy sources like solar and wind may help explain the growing excess capacity in U.S. electricity production.
Working Paper
A Broader Perspective on the Inflationary Effects of Energy Price Shocks
Consumers purchase energy in many forms. Sometimes energy goods are consumed directly, for instance, in the form of gasoline used to operate a vehicle, electricity to light a home or natural gas to heat a home. At other times, the cost of energy is embodied in the prices of goods and services that consumers buy, say when purchasing an airline ticket or when buying online garden furniture made from plastic to be delivered by mail. Previous research has focused on quantifying the pass-through of the price of crude oil or the price of motor gasoline to U.S. inflation. Neither approach accounts ...
Journal Article
Electric reliability concerns spur Texas backup generation boom
Amid growing concerns about reliability of electricity services across power-hungry Texas, deployment of back-up power sources—microgrids and alternative generation—is increasing. These assets, serving customers ranging from college campuses to oilfield operations, help keep the lights on when disaster strikes.
Working Paper
What Fuels the Volatility of Electricity Prices?
We use emergency outages of coal generators as an exogenous source of variation in the power generation stack to study how changes in marginal fuel affect real-time prices. Contrary to anecdotal evidence, we find that wholesale prices are less volatile when natural gas is on the margin more often.
Batteries, solar help keep the lights on in Texas but more needed
Many Texas residents remain skeptical about the reliability of the electric grid since massive dayslong outages in February 2021. Notably, the power supply situation has since improved, with capacity added over the past two years, primarily from solar and a tripling of battery storage capacity.
Journal Article
Texas electricity providers draw on variety of sources
Jim Burke, president and chief executive officer of Vistra Corp., the largest competitive power producer in the country, discusses the outlook for electric power generation in Texas as data centers and artificial intelligence demands are expected to reframe the business.