Hurricane Beryl proved that modernizing the Texas power grid is critical

Much has been done over the past three years to “harden” the grid, particularly winterizing power plants and wind turbines, but the emphasis has been almost exclusively on generation, not transmission and distribution. With a host of federal and state incentives in place, investment in wind, solar, battery, and gas-fired power plants is proceeding apace. Last year, the state’s 15,000 wind turbines produced 120,000 gigawatt hours of electricity; solar production increased nearly 50 percent; installed battery storage increased to 11 gigawatts; and the Texas Energy Fund recently announced that it had received applications for 56 gigawatts of new gas-fired generation.

The need to prioritize ‘power lines and poles’

Going forward, Texas lawmakers, regulators and utilities need to focus on “power lines and poles,” not just generation. Indeed, ERCOT, the state’s electric system operator, warned in April that improvements to transmission and distribution lines are critical to ensuring grid integrity and providing access to the state’s growing wind, solar and battery resources. ERCOT is also concerned about a repeat of last September’s “traffic jam,” when demand soared in North Texas but inadequate transmission prevented available power in South Texas from being sent north. In response, wholesale prices soared and ERCOT issued an emergency call to reduce power use.

Texas has been the fastest-growing state in terms of population and jobs for more than two decades. For years, we have led the nation in corporate relocations and expansions. The Texas economy has expanded at an average annual rate of 3 percent over the past 10 years, compared to 2.3 percent for the U.S. as a whole. And the state is second only to Virginia in the number of energy-hungry data centers and is projected to become number one in server farms within a few years. None of this would have happened without the availability and reliability of electricity.