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ERCOT’s SNAFU: $16 Billion? $30 Billion? (perils of central planning)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- March 17, 2021

“Other than desperation, why would the commissioners have increased electricity prices to the point that Texans paid more for electricity in one week than they had for the last three years combined?…. At the heart of the PUC’s decision seems to be a belief in theoretical market constructs over actual markets.”

“At the time, the new PUC chairman, Arthur D’Andrea, noted, ‘I think we all expected that when we were in load shed we would be at $9,000.’ In other words, the commissioners did not care what market prices actually were. They were going to impose their vision on the market, regardless.”

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is a government agency advertised as a ‘nonprofit corporation.’ It is also a government planning agency, not a free-market institution, under the thumb of state legislators and regulators.…

Numbers and the Great Texas Blackout

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- March 4, 2021

“One wonders what might have happened if over the last 20 years or so investors and generators had not been chasing the $21 billion worth of subsidies and benefits they received by building renewable generation in Texas.”

“With economics being about the unseen, not only the seen, it is fair to imagine a more robust, resilient power sector without the grand distraction of integrating intermittent renewables and otherwise ‘decarbonizing.'”

Much debate has ensued since Texas’s rolling blackouts last month in the face of an historic winter storm.

Poor winterization, lack of integration with the national grid, bureaucrats, deregulation, Enron (Ken Lay), and frozen natural gas pipelines have been targeted by politicians and media pundits.

However, the mainstream does not discuss the central player, renewable energies, except to say wind and solar were not the cause.…

Wind Subsidies Help Freeze Texans

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- February 18, 2021

“No, frozen wind turbines are not mainly to blame for the massive power outages in Texas. But renewable energy subsidies are.”

“The greatest danger that Texans now face is the political establishment’s continued unwillingness to challenge the renewable-energy lobby. If that happens, the result will be more of the same: increased cost of electricity and decreased reliability of the electric grid. 

Well, that didn’t take long.

The same day Texas started experiencing blackouts in the midst of an unprecedented winter storm, critics started pointing to markets as the problem. Wednesday’s Dallas Morning News ran a Bloomberg Wire story that claimed “The extreme cold appears to have caught Texas’s highly decentralized electricity market by surprise.”

Yes, Texas has experienced significant power outages. But it is not alone. PowerOutage.us shows that Oregon, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia–all with highly regulated electric grids–have also experienced significant outages. …

Texas Solar Tax Abatement: Will the Texas Gravy Train Slow?

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- January 27, 2021

Wind Subsidies and ‘Predatory Pricing’ in Texas (Part III: Time for Regulators to Investigate Predatory Pricing in Texas?)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- October 15, 2020

Wind Subsidies and ‘Predatory Pricing’ in Texas (Part II: Harming ERCOT)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- October 14, 2020

Wind Subsidies and ‘Predatory Pricing’ in Texas (Part I)

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- October 13, 2020

Spanish Renewable Giant Iberdrola Enters Texas with a Thud

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- August 5, 2020

Inferior, Subsidized Energy Feels the Pain

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- May 11, 2020

Bryce’s “A Question of Power”

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#bill-peacock">Bill Peacock</a> -- April 21, 2020