FILE - This Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, file photo shows power lines in Houston. In a letter, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, one month after declaring the state's electric power grid fixed, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is demanding aggressive action from state utility regulators to shore up that grid. The state’s main electric grid operator has sharply increased its prediction for how much power demand will increase in coming years.
The new estimates raise crucial questions, such as whether large power users that can ramp up and down need greater state oversight, the committee’s chair, state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, said in an interview. One bitcoin mining companyof dollars in the electricity market by selling back pre-purchased power when grid conditions became tight, which provoked the ire of some Texans who saw their power bills rise.
Electricity experts said the projected growth also makes clear that the grid will need more transmission lines — which are paid for by customers and take more time to build than many of the facilities that want more power. Judging whether data centers will actually be built in Texas is difficult, said Katie Coleman, energy counsel for the Texas Association of Manufacturers, which represents large power users. Companies that want to build data centers could be “shopping around for places to do business,” she said, by making requests in multiple places where they might build.
The state’s grid has come under intense public and legislative scrutiny since a 2021 winter storm crippled its operations, causing power outages across the state for days amid freezing temperatures that left millions of Texans without lights or heat. Hundreds died.
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