The Texas State Senate will take up an energy package today that sponsors claim will strengthen the state’s electricity system, but that threatens to undermine Texas’ first-in-the-nation competitive market and burden Texans with higher energy bills.
The legislative package, unveiled earlier this month, comes two years after a deadly winter storm paralyzed the state, sparking a public debate about the power system’s resiliency.
The Senate Business and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on the package at 8 a.m. central time Thursday, March 23.
The centerpiece of the package, Senate Bill 6, would require the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to add 10,000 megawatts of natural gas-fired “back-up” generation. That’s roughly a dozen new gas powerplants at a cost that Stoic Energy President Doug Lewin of the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter estimates at $11 billion.