WASHINGTON — A federal court Friday put on hold a controversial Obama administration regulation aimed at reducing power plant pollution in Texas and 26 other states that contributes to unhealthy air downwind.

Texas was among six states and more than a dozen electric power companies and municipal power plant operators that had sought to delay the rules until litigation plays out. A federal appeals court in Washington approved their request Friday and asked that oral arguments take place by April 2012.

Read the full article on Austin American-Statesman.

Luminant Generation Co. will continue operating two coal-fired electricity units it had previously planned to close now that a federal court temporarily halted a pollution regulation from being implemented, the company said Friday.

In September, Luminant said it would idle two units that provide 1.2 gigawatts of capacity at its Monticello power station in Titus County this coming Sunday to comply with the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.

Continue reading at FuelFix.com.

Will the lights stay on in 2012? Texas electricity experts cannot say for certain.

The state’s electric grid operators are coming off of a tumultuous year, one they are not eager to repeat. In February, a deep freeze knocked numerous power plants out of commission as equipment broke, causing rolling blackouts across the state. Then, the hottest summer on record spurred repeated conservation warnings, as grid managers worked — successfully — to avoid more blackouts.

Read the full article at Pegasus News.

While the state has already experienced some cold winter weather, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is preparing for the worst.

ERCOT recently released a winter 2011-12 assessment, the first of a new report created to provide a better picture of near-term risks, and the assessment indicated concern if there is a combination of extreme weather and worst-case generation outages, like in February of this year.

The report noted that under normal weather conditions, the winter peak demand should be around 53,600 megawatts, and the available resources, based on normal generation outage rates, are approximately 64,000 megawatts. However, under extreme weather conditions, the winter peak demand could be approximately 60,000 megawatts, and the available resources, based on the above normal generation outage rates, could dip to approximately 57,000 megawatts.

Continue reading at Hillcountrynews.com.

WASHINGTON — New environmental regulations, coming amid warnings that Texas might not meet its electricity needs next summer, could set up a legal dilemma for regulators, grid operators and generators.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires plants in 28 states including Texas to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions that cross state lines.

Read the full article at Fuel Fix.

AUSTIN — Will the lights stay on in 2012? Texas electricity experts cannot say for certain.

The state’s electric grid operators are coming off of a tumultuous year, one they are not eager to repeat. In February, a deep freeze knocked numerous power plants out of commission as equipment broke, causing rolling blackouts across the state. Then, the hottest summer on record spurred repeated conservation warnings, as grid managers worked — successfully — to avoid more blackouts.

Original source: Texas Tribune

WASHINGTON — After the Electric Reliability Council of Texas projected power reserves would fall below a safe minimum next year, some Texans said future federal environmental regulations are partially to blame and would raise the risk of blackouts.

They have cited the decision of Dallas-based Luminant Generation Co., to shut down two coal-fired generating units to comply with the upcoming Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. Starting Jan. 1 the rule will require power plants in 28 states including Texas to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions that cross state lines.

Read more at MyWestTexas.com.

In the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign, the discussion of energy supply and demand has again made its way to the forefront. Regardless of the candidates’ positions on the issue, the fact remains that we need all sources of energy production and we need them now. If we cannot continue to develop a steady baseline of electricity capacity, one that grows to meet our expanding needs, last winter’s rolling blackouts in Texas will seem like a minor discomfort compared to what might come.

A reliable electricity supply is arguably the most important infrastructure need of a modern society. Almost everything upon which we depend will simply cease working without electricity. The Texas energy grid was already under strain during the extreme weather of 2011, and to meet our growing needs, the system must increase generation by an astounding 28 percent by 2021 – less than 10 years from today – and then increase capacity again by an additional 31 percent by 2031.

Read the full article at the Houston Chronicle.

WASHINGTON — At least 32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states will be forced to shut down and 36 more might have to close because of new federal air pollution regulations, according to an Associated Press survey.Together, those plants produce enough electricity for more than 22 million households, but their demise probably won’t cause homes to go dark. Tax revenue and jobs, however, will be lost, and investments in new power plants and pollution controls will probably raise electric bills.

Read the full article at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

January marks the 10th anniversary of the deregulation of the Texas electricity market, a policy that has spawned new and diverse options for customers, but whose effect on rates remains debated.

The deregulated energy market opened Jan. 1, 2002, following the Texas Legislature’s approval of the policy in 1999.

More than 40 retail electricity providers now compete for customers in a market that was previously run by a handful of regulated utilities and co-ops.

Keep reading at the Dallas Business Journal, subscription needed.

Proponents of Texas’ deregulated energy market celebrate the plethora of choices available to customers.

But how do business owners sort through the pile of options to pick the right plan for their needs?

While the goal for most businesses is the lowest price, retailers and consultants say there are multiple factors to consider.

Keep reading at the Dallas Business Journal, subscription needed.

Every quarter, I plan to take a look back at trends in Houston-area electric prices and highlight information that may better equip you to choose an electric plan when your current contract is up for renewal. Let’s start by looking at last summer, which was one for the record books. With record drought and heat, you might have thought that electric prices would have also risen to record levels.

For some customers on variable-rate plans – those whose prices can change each month – they did. Record electric consumption and statewide power shortages led to a spike in the price electric retailers paid generators in the real-time and day-ahead markets, and this may account for a similar rise in month-to-month prices. One co-worker of mine saw his price jump to over 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Ouch!

Read the full article at FuelFix.com.

While the state has already experienced some cold winter weather, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is preparing for the worst.

ERCOT recently released a winter 2011-12 assessment, the first of a new report created to provide a better picture of near-term risks, and the assessment indicated concern if there is a combination of extreme weather and worst-case generation outages, like in February of this year.

Full article at the Taylor Daily Press.

One member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, concerned that electricity generators need more incentives to build additional power plants, suggested eliminating the cap on prices charged during peak times.

“I’m not prejudging it. I’ve got no particular problem raising the system wide offer cap, or eliminating the cap or adjusting the cap on peak or net margin,” said PUC commissioner Kenneth Anderson at the commission’s meeting Thursday in Austin.

Full article at StateImpact Texas.

On December 2, 2001, Enron declared bankruptcy. Immediately regulators cracked down, passing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which requires executives to sign off of accounting statements and to be criminally liable for their accuracy. Ten years later, have things improved?

By some indication, things have only gotten worse. A decade later, we still read similar newspaper headlines. Last week Mary Schapiro, chairman of the SEC, told congress that the SEC is investigating the accounting procedures of MF Global and how it was able to be exposed to risky foreign sovereign debt.
Tom Fowler of the Houston Chronicle reported that Sam Buell, one of the first prosecutors on the federal government’s Enron Task Force and now a law professor at Duke University, said that he was dumbfounded by the extent to which Enron’s lessons have been lost. “We thought Enron was the 9/11 of the financial markets, that it was a cataclysm that would change the world. The financial collapse of 2008 is evidence that it didn’t. Enron was the canary in a coal mine warning about the systemic problems that we needed to look at, particularly where it comes to risk management.”

Continue reading at www.formtek.com.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko is causing “serious damage” to the agency and is “creating a chilled work environment,” his four commission colleagues said.

Jaczko has bullied career staff and attempted to intimidate an independent panel of technical advisers, the other NRC commissioners said in an Oct. 13 letter to White House Chief of Staff William Daley, released yesterday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“In a long series of very troubling actions taken by Chairman Jaczko, he has undermined the ability of the commission to function,” Commissioners George Apostolakis, William Magwood IV, William Ostendorff and Kristine Svinicki said in the letter that described their “grave concerns.”

Read the full article at Bloomberg.

Nestled near subdivisions north of Fort Worth stands equipment that measures air pollutants. On 26 days this year, readings at the site showed higher concentrations of lung-damaging ozone than allowed by federal air-quality standards.

All told, Dallas-Fort Worth violated ozone standards on more days this year — 32 so far — than anywhere else in Texas, including the greater Houston area.

Keep reading at the New York-Times.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas anticipates that Texas will lack 2,600 megawatts of power during next year’s summer peak, and that research margins will plunge 12 percent due power generation units forcing to shut down or delay planned generation.

Ercot, which manages 85 percent of Texas electric load, had struggled this year with a surging power demand due to the shutting down of almost 7,000 MW of generation capacity in February that forced rolling blackouts in the state.

Full article at ecoseed.org.

Gov. Rick Perry derailed his presidential campaign after he couldn’t recall the name of the Department of Energy during a debate.

Ironically, energy is increasingly on the minds of many business owners back home.

Find the full article at the Houston Chronicle.

Extreme weather conditions could have operators of the state’s power grid on the edge of their seats in the coming winter months and again next summer.
The key word in the prediction is “extreme.”

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), operator of the state’s power grid, anticipates having enough generating capacity this winter as long as there are normal or colder-than-normal temperatures, even if some units go offline.

But if extreme weather forces more generating units offline than normal like last winter, ERCOT may need to trigger rolling black-outs to maintain the integrity of the system as a whole.

Read the full article at The Hillsboro Reporter.

A decade into the deregulation of the Texas electricity market, the notion of giant public power companies may seem like a relic of a bygone age. But public power remains very much alive in the form of the Lower Colorado River Authority, the Tennessee Valley Authority and others.

David Freeman, now in his 80s, says he has probably “run more public power agencies than anyone in history” — including both the TVA, where he was chairman of the board from 1978 to 1984, and the LCRA. He became the LCRA’s general manager in 1986 in the wake of a sex scandal called Trailergate and worked to clean the place up and scuttle plans for a lignite mine. Throughout his long career, which included several energy positions in California, he became known for his opposition to nuclear power and for championing energy-saving measures.

Read the full interview at The Texas Tribune.

To Pixie Parks, the idea of having a “smart meter” in her backyard to measure her electrical usage is disconcerting.

“I’m sure if I was computer literate, I would think this is the greatest stuff in the world,” she said.

But she isn’t, and unfamiliarity with technology has left her wondering whether her health and pocketbook could be threatened by the new devices. When a contractor arrived at her home to install her new meter recently, she asked him to hold off until she can learn more. Now, she hopes to work out a compromise with Bryan Texas Utilities about its location and use.

Keep reading at theeagle.com.

The U.S. should implement standards to reduce the risk of cyberattacks on the power grid and should designate one agency responsible for overseeing grid cybersecurity, a new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a national group of electricity grids, is responsible for applying such standards for the bulk power system. Yet none exist as of yet to govern distribution systems, which move power from the bulk system to homes and businesses, according to the report released Monday in Washington.

Read more at Fuelfix.com.

DALLAS (AP) — Some West Texas school districts canceled classes because of snow and icy conditions making travel dangerous.

The National Weather Service said snow fell Dec. 5 in Abilene, Amarillo, Gainesville, Decatur, Lubbock and the Odessa area. The Odessa-based Ector County Independent School District and the Midland ISD called off school for the day.

Crews from electric provider Oncor worked to restore power to about 1,600 residential and business customers still without electricity Dec. 5, mainly in West Texas.

Source: The River Cities Daily Tribune

Seven billion dollars would pay the electricity bills for every household in Texas for about seven months.

Seven billion dollars would build about 7,000 megawatts of natural gas-fired power plant generation. That’s enough to keep the lights on even during another extreme-heat, blast-the-air-conditioning emergency.

Read the full article (subscription only) at the Dallas Morning News.

Operators of much of the state’s power grid see little risk of rolling outages this winter.

However, an unexpected delay in commissioning a new coal plant near Waco increases the risk of outages next summer.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, released a pair of reports Thursday detailing projections for peak demand for both the upcoming season and the next 10 years. The winter projection came from new seasonal assessments the agency now performs.

Find the full article at the Denton Record-Chronicle.

​Ever since the EPA announced new pollution regs that would come down hardest on dirty power plants, there’s been considerable Sturm und Drang from the industry, who’ve been making all sorts of dire predictions about rolling outages resulting from burdensome, onerous, expensive federal regulation. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation grid reliability report singled Texas out as a state most likely to struggle to meet peak demand by 2013. Right after that, ERCOT released its own projections, portending reliability problems by 2012.

Keep reading at the Dallas Observer.

Texas electricity grid operator ERCOT on December 1 released perhaps the most frightening outlook for state residents in its 12-year history–and the most bullish indicator yet for state power producers such as NRG Energy NRG , Exelon EXC , Calpine CPN , and privately held Luminant. In its semiannual reliability report, ERCOT forecast reserve margins falling to 3.55% as soon as 2015, suggesting sky-high power prices and likely blackouts.

With power prices likely to reach ERCOT’s $3,000/MWh ceiling more often, profits could turn up significantly for incumbent producers. ERCOT average power prices typically range between $40/MWh and $80/MWh. Alternatively, fixing the dire outlook with a capacity market like in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast would add a fixed profit stream for Texas-based power producers. Not surprisingly, rolling forward power prices for July and August jumped more than 6% on December 1, the biggest move this year, excluding the one-off spikes during the August heat wave.

Find the full article at the Toronto Star.

Two new reports were released today by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s power grid. The reports look at both the upcoming winter in Texas as well as a ten-year outlook and what sort of risks are in store for the energy grid.

In both cases, the outlook is not good. This winter the grid could find itself strained again as it did during the blackouts earlier this year. “Our assessment indicates a concern if we experience a simultaneous occurrence of extreme weather and worst-case generation outages, much like February of this year,” Trip Doggett, the CEO of ERCOT, said in a release accompanying the reports.

Full article at State Impact Texas.
Original source, the New York Times.

Texas could face power shortages as soon as next year as aging plants are mothballed in response to new environmental standards, according to the state’s grid operator and the organization that monitors the U.S. power grids for the federal government.

In separate reports released days apart, both organizations determined that Texas will soon have an inadequate supply of backup power during periods of peak demand. The shrinking power reserves increase the chances of rolling blackouts if a major power plant goes offline on a very hot or cold day, when power use is greatest.

Visit the Austin American-Statesman for the full article.

Electricity industry officials raised concerns Wednesday that upcoming environmental regulations will force plant shutdowns that could threaten power reliability, but they stressed the government has tools it should use to prevent such problems.

U.S. agencies should use their legal authority to give power plants more time to comply with rules, industry officials told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the nation’s top electricity-system regulator.

Keep reading at FuelFix.com.

Electric customers outside of Bryan/College Station served by Entergy in Brazos and ten other counties may be paying more next year.

Entergy has filed a rate increase request with the Texas Public Utility Commission that calls for the average residential customer paying an additional $14.37 a month.

Keep reading at WTAW.com.

Austin Energy, hoping to add significantly more solar power over the next decade but leery of relying primarily on rooftops, is looking west.

The city-owned electric company could build up to three large solar arrays on West Texas land it owns or has under contract, thereby increasing its supply of solar power about eightfold, according to a recent report on the utility’s solar plans.

The report came at the request of the City Council, which wanted to see how solar could fit into a larger plan for starting to wean Austin off of coal power during the next decade and toward sources that do not contribute to global climate change.

Keep reading at Austin American-Statesman.

When Mike Anderson launched the FBI’s investigation of Enron’s collapse in early December 2001, he thought assigning a couple of agents to the case would be a good start.

“I knew it was going to be a big case,” said Anderson, assistant special agent in charge of the white-collar crime group in Houston. “But I think I was a little naïve about how big.”

Within a few weeks, the investigation had exploded into a national task force with dozens of agents, prosecutors and other specialists working on it from coast to coast.

Read the full article at the Houston Chronicle.

December will be a watershed month for Andrew Fastow.

He celebrates his 50th birthday on Dec. 22.

The 10th anniversary of the bankruptcy of his former employer, Enron, is Dec. 2.

And his prison sentence ends on Dec. 17.

That last date will be more of a formality – he’s been living at home for several months under in-home detention, an option the Bureau of Prisons offers for nonviolent offenders. But the date still represents a partial lifting of the legal cloud that has hung over the former Enron chief financial officer since late 2001.

Continue reading at the Houston Chronicle.

It was supposed to be the scandal that changed everything, yet it taught us nothing.

A decade ago, as Enron slid toward bankruptcy, it seemed almost impossible that the seventh-largest company in America could wither so quickly.

Disbelief gave way to outrage. Thousands lost their jobs, and we vowed that, if nothing else, it wouldn’t happen again. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley law to increase corporate accountability. And then, we moved on.

Keep reading at the Houston Chronicle.

AUSTIN, TEXAS — The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year caused many countries to rethink their appetite for nuclear power. It is also, in subtler ways, altering the fraught discussion of what to do with nuclear plants’ wastes.

A prime example is Germany, which decided to shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022 after the partial reactor meltdowns at Fukushima. That decision is making it easier for Germans to have a calm and focused discussion about a permanent disposal site for the plants’ wastes, analysts say.

Read the full article at the New York Times.

If at first you don’t succeed, swap sides. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts’s most famous bet on natural-gas prices, 2007′s $45 billion takeover of Texan utility TXU, bombed. Now KKR is buying the gas producers instead. It is a better strategy—mainly because it isn’t a straight bet on gas prices.

KKR, Crestview Partners and others are buying closely held Samson Investment Co. for $7.2 billion just in time for Thanksgiving. It is the latest in a string of forays into the sector by KKR. It paid $325 million for roughly …

Keep reading, for subscribers only, at The Wall Street Journal.

As a media spokesperson and vice-president of Corporate Communications for CenterPoint Energy, I’ve known for a long time that unless there’s a natural gas leak or widespread power outages, much of what our businesses do is “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” for most consumers. But last week, I read a consumer survey report from the Guild Group out of Austin that really brought this point home. Even though it’s been nearly 10 years since electric competition came to Texas, and even though millions of electric customers across the state have selected an electric provider and plan , there are still a lot of folks who don’t really understand how the market works or what my family of companies does.

Consider this:

* Only one-third of Texans surveyed correctly answered this question: “Does the company you buy electricity from, also own, maintain and repair the wires that deliver electricity to your home?” (The correct answer, by the way, is no. In most of Texas, utilities no longer generate or sell electricity.)
* Of those surveyed who are in CenterPoint Energy’s Houston electric service territory, only 27 percent could name our company off the top of their head as the utility responsible for owning and maintaining the wires that bring the electricity into their homes. Half of those surveyed named someone else.
* If there’s one bright spot, however, it’s this: you beat Dallas. When told the name of their electric transmission and distribution utility and asked how familiar they are them, 64 percent of Houston-area residents said they were very familiar with CenterPoint Energy’s Houston electric utility compared to only 50 percent who said they were familiar with Oncor in Dallas. It’s hard to get too excited, though. Even when survey respondents were given our name, about a fourth of area-residents said they were either ”not very” or “not at all familiar” with it.

Continue reading at the Fuel Fix blog.

An Electric Reliability Council of Texas proposal to loosen restrictions on its emergency interruptible load service program has drawn conflicting reactions from stakeholders.

ERCOT on Monday afternoon issued a notice of draft amendments to the Public Utility Commission of Texas substantive rule regarding EILS. The proposed changes include:

–allowing participation by distributed generation;
–changing the name to “emergency response service;”
–eliminating the 1,000 MW capacity procurement ceiling per contract period;
–eliminating a 90-day-notice requirement for creating new contract periods;
–eliminating the current requirement for three specific contract periods and allowing ERCOT to set contract periods as needed;
–eliminating a requirement that the emergency resource be able to reduce load within 10 minutes of dispatch; and
–allowing ERCOT to renew resources’ obligations for additional hours during a contract period if ERCOT exceeds the eight-hour obligation within that contract period.

Continue reading at platts.com.

(Reuters) – The Texas power company taken over in the largest ever leveraged buyout needs what many consider long-shots, higher natural gas and power prices, to help keep the lights on.

Formerly known as TXU Corp when it was taken over in 2007 by private equity, Energy Future Holdings is now struggling under a heavy debt load, and faces strong headwinds in the form of low power prices and higher costs related to environmental regulations.

Full article can be found at Reuters.

Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, the former TXU Corp., is plagued by enormous debt and low natural gas prices as it struggles to survive.

EFH is the parent company of power generator Luminant, electric transmission and distribution firm Oncor and retail electric provider TXU Energy.

Click here for the Reuters report.

–Jack Z. Smith

Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Residential customers attracted to lower price options are defecting from TXU Energy Retail Co. LLC, causing a 6 percent drop so far this year, but the company says it won’t chase prices and argues that its focus on service and durability will prevail in Texas’ competitive deregulated electricity market.

Irving-based TXU, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings Corp., is the biggest retail electricity supplier in Texas with 1.7 million residential customers.

Full article at Dallas Business Journal.

EL PASO- Your electric rates will stay the same, at least for now.

Today City Council voted to lock the current rates into place. In the meantime, the city wants El Paso Electric to submit a report justifying the rates it already charges. City Representative Courtney Niland says the power company’s rates are too high. El Paso Electric says the rates are fair and should be higher.

“I believe that our rates are going to prove to be lower than what we should be receiving and we expect an increase at the end of this process which would be in August,” says Richard Fleager, El Paso Electric.

Find the full article at KTSM Channel 9.

When executives in the Texas power industry get together, two challenges dominate the discussion: how to continue to deliver electricity cheaply and reliably. Both were the focus of a Texas Electricity Professionals Association conference last week in Dallas.

One concern is that Dallas-based Luminant plans to close two Texas coal-fired power plants next year to comply with new Environmental Protection Agency air-emissions rules.

The full article is available for subscribers only at the Houston Business Journal.

Ralph Izzo, the chief executive of the New Jersey’s PSEG, isn’t your average utility executive.

At Columbia University, he studied mechanical engineering as an undergraduate and later earned a doctorate in applied physics. At the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, he did numerical simulations of fusion experiments and published or presented 35 papers on something called “magnetohydrodynamic modeling.”

So it’s not surprising that he would say in 1998 he “fell in love” with the gadgetry commonly known as “smart grid” technology — as Izzo puts it, “customer communication technology, real-time price signals and fantastic sensory capability.”

Read the full article at The Washington Post.

The Senate today shot down a resolution to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s cross-state power plant emissions rule that Texas lawmakers have criticized and the state has asked a court to block.

The resolution sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., needed 51 votes to pass but was defeated 41-56. Had the measure passed, it would have had a good chance of making it through the Republican-controlled House, which passed a measure in September to weaken the rule and delay it by several years. President Obama has threatened to veto both measures.

Find the full article at FuelFix.com.

The cost of building transmission for expensive wind power in Texas is coming in nearly 40 percent higher than initially promised. Instead of $4.9 billion, as estimated in 2008, the transmission lines are now expected to cost $6.8 billion, according to a report prepared by the RS&H infrastructure consulting firm for the Texas Public Utility Commission. This amounts to approximately $800 per household in the state, or at least $5 per month per ratepayer.

Cost Gaming

The report states several factors caused the initial underestimate of transmission line construction costs. For example, the initial estimate assumed transmission lines would be built in direct, straight lines from point to point. However, the new report notes transmission lines must often follow roads, fences, terrain features, or property lines instead of direct lines between two connecting points.

Continue reading at Oilprice.com.

Houston-based power plant operator Dynegy said Monday evening that it has reached an agreement to restructure up to $4 billion in debt and that five subsidiaries are seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“If this restructuring support agreement is successfully implemented, it will significantly reduce the amount of debt on the company’s consolidated balance sheet,” Dynegy said.

Keep reading at the Houston Chronicle.

With the Texas drought now expected to last at least through next summer, Electric Reliability Council of Texas market players and watchers say rising power prices illustrate growing concerns about its impact on supply.

The US Drought Monitor shows 91% of Texas in the two worst categories of drought.

State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, speaking to state senators in Austin last week, called the situation “the most intense, one-year drought in Texas history” before offering an even more sobering thought.

Find the full story at www.wusa9.com.

Houston freeways are filled with billboards urging you to “lock in your electric plan now!” and others promising great rates. But you wouldn’t consult a billboard to decide to refinance a mortgage, buy bonds or sell stock; you would do research, consult market indexes or perhaps ask a trusted adviser.

And that’s where CenterPoint Energy comes in. While we don’t sell electricity, we have our finger on the pulse of the electric market. That’s why we’re introducing the CenterPoint Energy Electric Price Index. It debuted in Sunday’s business section and will be featured there weekly as well as on our website.

Full article at Fuel Fix.

El Paso Electric’s move to stop the city from trying to force it to lower rates might be without precedent, but the city’s actions also are exceedingly rare.

Only twice in the memories of regulators, consumer representatives and a career utility attorney have cities ordered electric companies to show why their rates shouldn’t be cut. The local case appears to be the first in which a city accused a power company of taking excessive profits from its customers.

Read more from the Las Cruces Sun-News.

Most Houstonian’s know CenterPoint Energy as the company that owns the power lines and poles around the city, as well as the natural gas lines that serve homes and businesses. But starting this week CenterPoint wants to be known as something else: an objective voice on retail electric rates.

CenterPoint Energy Insights has been added to the Voices roster for FuelFix (also known as that-column-on-the-right-side-of-the-Fuelfix.com-page-where-different-people-spout-off-on-a-variety-of-energy-topics).

The blog will feature a variety of experts from within the company talking about retail electric rates that are available to the more than 2 million Houston-area customers as well as ways to use electricity more wisely.

Read more at Fuel Fix.

With the growing world population thirstier than ever for electricity and with greenhouse gases accumulating in the planet’s atmosphere, scientists and engineers are working to advance sustainable energy sources, a smarter grid system, and large-scale battery technologies that can store and release power on demand.

Coincidentally, on the day that the world’s population hit 7 billion, three experts at a session of the Industrial Physics Forum spoke about the growing challenge of supply and demand in the electric economy. The forum, organized by the industrial outreach arm of the American Institute of Physics and titled “Energy: Transition to a Sustainable Future,” was featured at the annual meeting of AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing held last week in Nashville, Tennessee.

Read the full report at PhysicsToday.org.

Although panel prices have fallen by two thirds since 2008, the Department of Energy estimates that solar power still costs at least three times more than natural gas.

“There is a large price differ­ence with gas,” Robert Powers, president of American Electric Power (AEP) Utilities, told the ­Solar ­Power International conference in Dallas, Texas.

AEP operates in ten Midwestern states and Texas. It says five shale-gas formations lie beneath its service area.

Go to www.rechargenews.com for the entire article.

EL PASO, Texas — At least two members of El Paso City Council believe Wednesday’s release of third quarter 2011 earnings for El Paso Electric further justifies the current rate case the council has filed against the utility with the Public Utility Commission.

Council members Cortney Niland and Steve Ortega think that El Pasoans are paying way too much for their electricity and claim the third quarter earnings statement from EPE is proof of that.

“Their revenue and their earnings continue to increase,” said City Representative Cortney Niland, who is not backing off when it comes to challenging El Paso Electric’s rates. “It’s important for them to document to us why we shouldn’t roll back the rates given the fact their earnings and their profitability continues to soar.”

Continue to the full article at KVIA.com.

Electricity professionals attending a Dallas conference today were warned that higher electricity prices are likely in the next couple of years. The predictions were based partly on an expectation of somewhat higher natural gas prices which drive Texas power rates and fears of an increasingly tight supply.

“Just tell them to lock in prices” for one or two years, consultant Brandon Schwertner told his audience of electricity retailers and brokers at the Texas Electricity Professionals Association annual conference here.

Keep reading at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

People around the world have managed to decorate their homes for the holidays, for centuries, without using electricity.

But those people don’t live in North Texas suburbia.

If you cannot create a festive atmsphere without stringing electric lights, at least consider upgrading to more efficient LED lights. Home Depot is offing a trade-in program. Bring in your old lights, get a coupon for new, LED lights.

You’ll save money and reduce pollution from power plants.

Source: Dallas Morning News.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) reported a major increase in net income in its third quarter report released Wednesday.

The Houston-based energy provider reported net income of $973 million, or $2.27 per share, a significant increase from last year’s third quarter net income of $123 million, or 29 cents per share.

Keep reading at the Houston Business Journal.

The Dallas-based parent of TXU Energy-Luminant is announcing a third quarter loss of $710 million. That compares to a $2.9 billion loss in the third quarter of last year.

Energy Future Holdings says that nearly half its third quarter losses stemmed from charges related to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule. Starting in January, the rule will require Texas power plants to cut emissions of nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide.

Continue reading and listen on KUHF Houston public radio.

A split state Public Utility Commission on Thursday put a floor under wholesale electricity prices for power reserves that would be called upon in emergencies, but industry representatives said the prices are still too low.

State authorities are grappling with how to encourage private investment in new power plants to address potential electricity shortages as early as 2014 and to respond to emergencies such as last summer’s historic heat wave.

Commission Chairwoman Donna Nelson suggested $325 a megawatt-hour for so-called nonspinning reserves, but Commissioners Ken Anderson Jr. and Rolando Pablos favored a range of $120 to $180.

“We are not going to have enough generation in 2014-15 if we don’t fix these issues,” Nelson said. “I’m concerned about the message we are sending to the market.”

Continue reading at the Austin American-Statesman.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the latest costs ladled on Houston area consumers thanks to electric deregulation. The newest charges — about $1.7 billion — relate to a settlement over “stranded costs.” They represent the investment that the old monopoly utilities made in things such a nuclear power plants before deregulation.

The settlement stemmed from a case had been tied up in lawsuits for a decade. A ruling by the state Supreme Court and a settlement involving CenterPoint Energy ultimately resulted in the $1.7 billion deal. That comes in addition to the $2.3 billion CenterPoint was already allowed to collect for stranded costs. The result for most consumers works out to about $7.30 a month, or about $4 billion total.

Read the full article at the Houston Chronicle website.

Ten months after implementation, ERCOT continues to grapple with unforeseen difficulties arising from the nodal market. As you may already be aware, the nodal market began operation in December of 2010. Previously, ERCOT was operating under what is known as a “zonal market,” a less-complex form of wholesale market. The nodal market differs from the old zonal market in the way that it instructs generators to produce electricity. In the nodal system, ERCOT dispatches generation considering both the lowest total cost and the greatest relief of bottlenecks within the transmission system. The goal is to deploy the lowest-cost combination of generators that the capacity of the grid will allow.

Continue to energylawpolicy.blogspot.com for the full article

Cielo Wind Power is gathering a team to try to beat a deadline to construct the Spinning Spur Wind Ranch, and it wants to steer $50 to $70 million in contracts to regional businesses.

The needs include heavy earth moving, communication tower construction, safety equipment, information technology and even tower and turbine cleaning prior to assembly.

Keep reading at Amarillo Globe-News.

EAST TEXAS (KYTX) — This week, two environmental groups told the Luminant power company they plan to file a lawsuit against them on behalf of the Sierra Club.

They allege coal-power Luminant plants committed more than 38,000 violations of the Clean Air Act.

Luminant power already announced plans to temporarily close plants in East Texas to meet new federal emission standards.

Full article can be found on KYTV Ch19.

Energy Future Holdings Corp., which was taken private in the largest leveraged buyout in history, posted a smaller third-quarter loss than a year ago quarter that included a massive write-down, even amid higher interest costs and lower sales.

In 2007, private-equity companies KKR & Co. LP (KKR) and TPG Inc. led a record-setting $45 billion leveraged buyout of the company, formerly known as TXU Corp. Since then, the large Texas power provider has struggled to manage its debt amid slumping power prices and a competitive …

Find the full article, for subscribers only, at The Wall Street Journal.

Household electricity bills could jump an average of $115 per year by 2025 if the U.S. adopts a White House-backed “clean energy standard” forcing power utilities to use more wind and solar, according to a new government analysis.

The Energy Information Administration’s report came at the request of Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. It examined the economic effects of a clean energy standard under 18 different scenarios.

Find the full article at Fuel Fix.

Texas’ wind farms hit a new peak generation record earlier this month, hitting 7,400 megawatts at 3:06 a.m. on Oct. 7.

That beat the previous record of 7,355 MW set June 19, at 10:26 a.m.

At the time of the new record, wind was supplying 15.2 percent of the total system load of 48,733 MW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

Continue reading at Fuel Fix.

The EU has set ambitious goals for its electricity and gas supply sectors. These goals involve decarbonisation, an increased share of renewables, improved security of energy supplies and a reduction of demand. Do these goals all point to higher prices per unit of energy? The answer is, quite simply, yes.

Reducing the carbon emissions from the energy sector necessarily means raising the price of carbon dioxide released from gas and from power production. This can happen through a combination of reducing the cap on the quantity of emissions traded in the EU emissions trading scheme, via higher carbon taxes or by higher emissions performance standards. Higher carbon prices (actual or implicit) are essential to underpin low-carbon investments.

Read the full article at Guardian UK.

WASHINGTON — Although the Environmental Protection Agency recently relaxed an upcoming power-plant emissions rule, it still threatens the reliability of Texas’ electric power grid, most of the state’s U.S. House delegation contended Wednesday.

Some power plant operators have warned they will have to shut down generators to meet the standards of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that, starting in January, will require plants in 27 states to shrink emissions of soot- and smog-forming chemicals that can blow across state lines. The deadline for compliance is in 2013.

Read the full article at MySanAntonio.com.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent weakening of an upcoming rule reducing emissions from power plants provides some relief for Texas utilities but still doesn’t guarantee the prevention of electricity blackouts, the state’s members of Congress alleged today.

The EPA had reduced Texas’ required emissions reduction under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which will require power plants in 27 states to reduce soot- and smog-forming emissions that can travel to downwind states starting Jan. 1. Thirty-one of Texas’ 32 members of Congress said today that “though any relief is helpful,” flawed assumptions incorporated in the rule caused the agency to overestimate how much extra electricity the state grid operator can provide beyond what’s demanded.

Continue reading at Fuel Fix.

The final Cross-State Air Pollution Rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency this summer will require 27 states, including Texas, to reduce power plant emissions that cross into neighboring states. The goal of the new rule is to dramatically cut our emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO {-2}) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).

According to the EPA, which eased the rules just last week to allow more time for compliance, companies will have until January 2014 to find effective ways to reduce SO {-2} and NOx emissions — ingredients in smog and ground-level ozone — or face federal sanctions.

Read more at Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The sun has yet to fully shine on the solar-power industry in Texas. The industry is still tiny, accounting for a fraction of 1 percent of the state’s electric power generation.

But industry professionals and advocates of renewable energy say that Texas potentially could become the No. 1 generator of solar power in the U.S. within several years, thanks to its size, wide-open spaces, sunshine and a large, fast-growing population that will need more electricity.

Continue reading at Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas recorded its highest-ever energy usage this summer, which officials say was the by-product of a hotter-than-normal summer and drought conditions. Although ERCOT, whose primary control center is located in Taylor, avoided implementing rotating power outages, the nonprofit corporation that manages about 85 percent of the state’s electricity load is looking ahead to determine how to deal with next summer if Texas remains in a severe drought.

ERCOT hit its peak demand Aug. 3, when the system reached 68,379 megawatts as customers used more air conditioning to combat the heat.

Continue to Community Impact Newspaper for the full article.

For several 15-minute intravals early this morning, wholesale electricity cost nothing. The market price went to zero.

This happens every once in a while during the dark, morning hours in Texas’ deregulated market. The reason is a combination of wind blowing harder and Texans using less juice.

Keep reading at Dallasnews.com.

(Reuters) – Small changes made to a federal smog pollution rule last week have not allayed fears of Texas regulators who worry the new rule could lead to increased rolling blackouts, Donna Nelson, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission said on Thursday.

Texas is among 15 states challenging a January deadline for implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) which sets stricter limits on sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants in order to protect the health of residents in states downwind from the emissions.

Read more at reuters.com.

The first time the worker from Reliant Energy knocked on the door of Doug Shoemaker and Michelle Dugan’s home in the historic Sixth Ward, they almost didn’t open it.

“I think I told him to just leave his material and we’d get back to him,” said Dugan.

But eventually the couple studied the offer from the retail electric provider — to turn their neighborhood into a sort of laboratory for smart grid technology — and decided to get on board.

Keep reading at fuelfix.com.

Are electricity retailers finally offering nifty products to differentiate themselves?

Electricity retailer TXU Energy introduced an iPhone app on Wednesday that allows customers to track their electricity usage and how high their monthly light bill is rising as the month progresses.

Full article at Dallas Morning News.

HOUSTON Oct 11 (Reuters) – Texas marked its fifth straight month of record power use as lingering heat continued into September, the state grid operator said in a report.

Data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) showed power use on Sept. 2 reached 63,161 megawatts, surpassing the previous September record from 2005 of 59,524 MW, by 6.1 percent.

Read the full article at Reuters.

When Texas’ wholesale power prices spiked unexpectedly in 2008 due to problems with power line congestion, a handful of small electric retailers went out of business, leaving tens of thousands of customers on higher-priced plans with back-up providers.

When power prices spiked again this February due to a lengthy cold snap shutting down power plants, one firm went out of business, but it happened in a much less disruptive way for the customers.

Read the full article at Fuel Fix.

With extreme temperatures waning for much of Texas, local gas and electric providers still want their customers to remain diligent when it comes to conserving energy.

“It’s always a good idea to conserve if only to help decrease your electric bill,” said Dottie Roark, spokesperson for The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Read more at courier-gazette.com.

Officials with an electric utility that serves much of Northeast Texas said Wednesday that federal emissions regulations set to begin next year are “unlawful” and warned its customers the regulations would mean higher electric bills by next summer.

AEP Southwestern Electric Power Co.’s customers in Texas could see rate increases between 18 percent and 22 percent if the Environmental Protection Agency implements Cross-State Air Pollution Rules on Jan. 1, said T. Brian Bond, SWEPCO vice president for external affairs.

Find the full article at Longview News-Journal.

New energy efficiency standards passed by the Texas Legislature this year may lead to a long-term fiscal impact for the city of Killeen.

However, rather than being a costly unfunded mandate, these new standards could save money.

Senate Bill 898 calls for political subdivisions to establish a goal of reducing electric consumption by 5 percent each fiscal year for 10 years. The legislation took effect on Sept. 1.

Full article at the Killeen Daily Herald.

(Reuters) – The summer heat wave that pushed Texas’ power grid to the brink of blackouts has faded, but the debate over how to keep the lights on next summer is just warming up.

State regulators and utilities are weighing a myriad of short-term and long-term strategies to encourage companies to build new power plants at a time when long-term wholesale power prices are barely half the level needed to justify new investment.

Read the full article at reuters.com.

Oct. 13 is the deadline for sending comments to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and state officials Glenn Hegar and Lois Kolkhorst are calling on residents to write about what standards should be used to justify the CenterPoint Energy’s plan to construct a power line that would cut through Austin County.

That deadline, quickly approaching, was announced two weeks ago.

In July, CenterPoint announced it would delay submitting the power line application after several public meetings and hearings were held in the area, with most residents voicing opposition.

The full story can be found at sealynews.com.

Dallas-based Luminant, the largest electric power generator in Texas, is reconsidering its decision to idle two coal-fired power plants after the Environmental Protection Agency proposed revisions Thursday that would ease the requirements of a new rule designed to curb air pollution.

But Luminant spokesman Allan Koenig said that the company is studying the EPA’s 97-page statement of proposed revisions and that “there’s just no way we know” without further analysis whether the changes might allow the power generator to keep the Monticello units operating near Mount Pleasant.

Read the full article at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Dominion Virginia Power rolled out a program Monday that gives electric-vehicle owners a rate break if they charge their cars overnight.

The program allows Dominion Virginia Power customers to choose two options to charge their vehicles:

• Under the first option, car owners can allow the power company to install a second meter in their home. The second meter measures energy used only for recharging the vehicle. The cost for the meter is $2.90 a month.
• The other option allows for lower overnight prices for all household electricity use, including the recharging of vehicles. Dominion Virginia Power will replace the customer’s meter with one that records energy use in 30-minute intervals, allowing the company to apply pricing rates at specific time periods.

Find the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Supply shortages in Texas’ electricity market have state regulators considering major changes that would boost supplies but also could raise electricity prices for consumers.

Low wholesale prices have prompted power companies to defer construction of generating plants and shutter old units, cutting supplies. Meanwhile, demand hit record levels this year, due to extreme heat and continuing population growth. Texas came close to rolling blackouts this summer and had rolling blackouts in February when electricity supplies gave out during a cold snap.

To continue reading, please visit the Wall Street Journal. Content available to subscribers only.

Supply shortages in Texas’ electricity market have state regulators considering major changes that would boost supplies but also could raise electricity prices for consumers.

Low wholesale prices have prompted power companies to defer construction of generating plants and shutter old units, cutting supplies. Meanwhile, demand hit record levels this year, due to extreme heat and continuing population growth. Texas came close to rolling blackouts this summer and had rolling blackouts in February when electricity supplies gave out during a cold snap.

Full article available at The Wall Street Journal.

Texas’ main electric grid operator will pay $384,000 in fines for violations of power reliability standards in 2008.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT, will pay the fines under a settlement with Texas Reliability Entity, which oversees federal rules related to power grid reliability in Texas.

Keep reading “ERCOT to pay fines for 2008 errors“

The owner of Texas’ second-largest power plant operator and largest retail electric provider is lowering its earnings projections for the year due to this past summer’s multiple power crisis.

Measures that NRG Energy said it will take to avoid such problems in the future are likely to lead to high power prices for consumers.

Continue to Fuel Fix for the full article.

Direct Energy’s $270 million acquisition of Irving-based First Choice Power could prove to be a sign of things to come.

The Houston-based retail power company acquired 220,000 Texas customers in the recent deal, bringing the company’s total base of customers in Texas to 830,000. The company also has electricity customers in California, the Northeast and Canada.

Find the full article at the Houston Business Journal.

United Illuminating Co. and Connecticut Light & Power Co. said Thursday new programs allowing utility customer to roll loan payments for home efficiency upgrades onto bills are now available.

“We think it’s the first of its kind in the country,” said Patrick McDonnell, UI’s director of conservation and load management, of the Residential Energy Efficiency Financing Program.

Keep reading at the Connecticut Post.

Houston-area electricity customers will see another $2.20 per month added to their monthly bills for the next 14 years after the settlement of a dispute between CenterPoint Energy, Houston-area cities and the Texas Public Utility Commission.

Texas’ 1999 electric deregulation law allows electric utilities to get back earlier investments made in power plants and transmission lines that could be recovered under regulation but not in a competitive market. These are called stranded costs.

Keep reading “Settlement to add $2.20 a month to area power bills“

The recent news that Luminant Generation Co., Texas’ largest electricity generator, would close two generating units at a coal power plant and cut 500 jobs because of an upcoming Environmental Protection Agency emissions rule became a rallying cry for Republicans in Texas and across the nation for what they saw as federal overreach. Just Friday, the House passed a Republican-fronted bill that would delay that rule for at least eight years.

It turns out that Luminant’s parent company Energy Future Holdings Corp. lobbied lawmakers in Congress on that bill, the so-called TRAIN Act, in the second quarter of 2011, according to federal lobbying disclosures. The company spent roughly $60,000 to lobby members on issues ranging from the TRAIN Act to legislation that would strip EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The records don’t make clear which lawmakers the company approached or how much of the $60,000 went specifically toward the TRAIN Act.

Continue reading at the Houston Chronicle blog.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott Thursday asked a federal court to impose a stay on EPA’s cross-state air pollution rule, saying that the EPA Administrator failed to comply with federal laws when the cross-state air pollution rule was issued in July of 2011. The lawsuit follows Dallas based Luminant’s announcement that the new rule will force them to shut down two coal plants and three mines, cutting 500 jobs.

“The EPA’s latest overreaching and unlawful regulations jeopardize the availability of reliable electricity in Texas, imperil hundreds of jobs for hardworking Texans, and violate federal law”, Attorney General Abbott said.

Continue reading at Examiner.com.

Irving-based First Choice Power is being acquired by Direct Energy for $270 million in cash, bolstering the Houston-based company’s position as the third-biggest electricity retailer in Texas.

First Choice, a subsidiary of PNM Resources, has 220,000 residential and commercial accounts in Texas. With the acquisition, Direct Energy will have more than 830,000 customers in Texas, the company said in a statement today. Direct Energy is owned by Centrica plc, based in Windsor, England.

Read the full article at Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

DALLAS, Texas—
Even after a record breaking summer full of triple digit heat, we all expected an increase in our electricity bills. Kevin Peterson has lived in Texas long enough to know our summers can be ruthless. But his August electric bill was over $1,200.

“My first reaction was there must be an error,” said Peterson.

Read the full article on The CW33.

Laura Doll, board chair for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state grid operator, announced today that she plans to leave the board at the beginning of 2012 to pursue a career opportunity in California.

Doll, a former executive with the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Power Authority, has served on the ERCOT board since June 2010 and as chair since January 2011.

Continue reading “ERCOT board chair Laura Doll announces plans to leave in 2012“

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has appointed attorney Rolando Pablos of Olmos Park (a suburb of San Antonio) to the Texas Public Utility Commission, following the recent switch by longtime PUC commissioner Barry Smitherman to the Texas Railroad Commssion.

Perry also reappointed Kenneth Anderson Jr. of Dallas to the PUC, which oversees retail electric providers and is the agency that considers rate increases for electric transmission and distribution companies such as Oncor Electric Delivery.

The other PUC commissioner is Donna Nelson, who chairs the three-member panel.

Read more at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Cliffs Notes version of power plant operator Luminant’s big news this week goes something like this:

“The Dallas-based power plant operator has to shut down two power generation units and nearby lignite coal mines and cut 500 jobs by Jan. 1 because of a new EPA rule that the company wasn’t given enough time to comply with. In addition to lost wages and local taxes, Texas’ power grid reliability will be endangered because of the loss of 1,200 megawatts of power capacity.”

But just as those quick-study guides are no substitute for reading the full text, there are some missing details in the short-hand Luminant story.

Find the full article at Fuel Fix.

If the drought in Texas continues well into next spring and summer, some power plants could be forced to stop operating, the state grid operator said.

“If we don’t get any rain between now and next summer, there’s potentially several thousand megawatts of generation that wouldn’t be available and would be affected,” said Kent Saathoff, an official with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator, in an interview on Thursday. (To provide context, ERCOT manages about 84,400 megawatts of generation capacity. Also, the coal-plant closures and changes announced earlier this week by the power generator Luminant amount to 1,300 megawatts.)

Read the full article, “Drought Could Cause Problems for Texas Power Plants“

Some analysts are skeptical about Luminant’s insistence that to comply with pending pollution rules it must shut down coal-fired power plants and fire workers, which it says would jeopardize the state’s power grid.

Rather, they say, the Dallas-based company, which is the state’s largest power generator, can meet its obligations under pending federal Cross-State Air Pollution Rules through a combination of changing fuels, installing new emission controls, running existing controls more frequently and taking part in an emissions credit trading program that comes with the new rules.

Find the full article at the Houston Chronicle.

Make no mistake, the 500 Luminant employees who will lose their jobs later this year are victims, but not of federal over-regulation.

They are pawns in the ongoing charade of Texas’ deregulated electricity market, which already has left generators financially weakened and consumers worrying about blackouts.

Continue reading “Don’t blame EPA for deregulation failure“

EL PASO, Texas — KFOX14 has been following El Paso City Hall’s concerns about your high electric rates for a couple of days now.

But now there is news of what could be a breakthrough, at least in Texas.

As of Oct. 1, charitable organizations and churches qualify for a new deal.

Continue to KFOX14 for the full article.

El Pasoans may know soon whether the City Council is going to require El Paso Electric to file a new rate case in hopes of lowering electric rates for El Paso area customers just a year after the company increased rates.

The city’s consultant for utility issues, El Paso lawyer Norman Gordon, is expected to deliver a report to the City Council on Tuesday with his preliminary findings on whether it makes sense for the city to open a new rate case, said city Rep. Cortney Niland.

Keep reading “Decision soon on filing new El Paso Electric rate case“

A proposed third electrical transmission line to the Rio Grande Valley is closer to reality since being endorsed by an engineering committee that’s part of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s electrical grid.

State Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, who has been pushing a third transmission line for the region, announced Sept. 1 that the committee had approved the project, which would run an estimated 163 miles of new transmission line from Laredo to north of Edinburg. The next step is for the project to go before the full ERCOT board and the Public Utility Commission for final approval.

Continue reading at The Brownsville Herald.

In a night marked by some testy exchanges, San Marcos City Council on Tuesday gave first nod to water, wastewater and drainage utility rate increases of about $3 per month on the average residential customer.

The rate increases would take effect Oct. 1. The council is scheduled to hold a final vote on the increases at a Sept. 20 meeting. The proposed increases met a smattering of opposition marshaled by resident Lisa Spencer; four residents, including Spencer, spoke at Tuesday’s public hearing against the hikes.

Read the full article at San Marcos Mercury.

The future of electric power at the consumer level is a two-lane road, not the one-way thoroughfare that has long been the standard, those who follow such trends say.

At the heart of the matter lies the so-called “smart grid,” a revamped electric grid that reacts intelligently to quickly changing power demands.

Read the full article at ReporterNews.com.

After several weeks of extremely hot temperatures — and very little cloud cover — cooler weather has come to Texas. And that’s dropped the load level on the state’s electric grid by 20 percent.

ERCOT added even more electrical capacity to the grid in the last few weeks of August, when temperatures were regularly in the triple digits. Kent Sadoff, ERCOT’s Vice President of Systems Operations, says Texas could probably use more generation.

Listen to the full conversation on KUHF, Houston public radio.

Not only has Texas had record-breaking temperatures, the state also had record-breaking energy consumption, leading to expensive energy bills.

Electric companies are trying to work with customers on high bills or suggest agencies that might be able to help. But the No. 1 step electric companies suggest customers take toward reducing bills is conservation.

“We’re all kind of suffering through the hot weather,” said Ethan Cox, customer service manager for Denton Municipal Electric.

Energy costs for DME customers, both residential and commercial, are “10 [percent] to 12 percent higher than they were last July,” Cox said.

And the electric company is anticipating August will be similar.

Read more at the Denton Record-Chronicle.

‘Out of the woods’ on blackouts?

The threat of rolling blackouts and constant strain on Texas’ electrical grid might soon be a memory as the state’s vicious heat wave appears to be letting up.

Officials said a cool front was rolling across the state Sunday, dropping temperatures into the 90s and 80s and easing electricity demand. Spokeswoman Theresa Gage of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the power grid, said that “we’re out of the woods” if the lower temperatures hold.

The grid operator took numerous steps to avoid rolling blackouts this summer, including calling on Texans to conserve power.

“It took us all to get through this difficult summer,” Gage said.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

Amarillo, Texas – There’s an electric bill price hike headed your way. Starting next year, you’ll pay about 12% more than you do now. For an average family, that’s roughly $8 a month.

The reason for the price hike is a new federal EPA law mandating Texas and nearly 2 dozen other states reduce emissions because the agency claims they’re causing smog and pollution on the east coast. In order to meet the new standards by the January first deadline, Xcel Energy will have to revamp the way it creates fuel.

Xcel’s Director of Regulatory Administration Alice Jackson says, “We are having to make coal the second option. So the least expensive option is having to be called on second. So essentially that means we operate our natural gas before we operate our coal therefore increasing the overall cost to the customers.”

Keep reading “Get ready for an electric bill price hike“

SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) – The temperature is still up, and so is your electric bill.

August was the hottest on record in Tyler, and you may see record breaking costs when your electrical bill arrives.

One East Texas man cut his bill by 70%, but he did have to lay out some cash first.

Dr. Howard Beggs is beating the heat, and the system with an array of things. He has 24 solar panels baking up electricity to feed his house.

“If I don’t change my usage, this will pay out in about eight years. But, it gives a return on investment of seven to eight percent, which is a lot better than you can do in a savings account,” says Beggs.

It cost around $25,000, but various rebates brought it down to $9,000.

Read the full article at KLTV.com.

Attention Texas electricity customers with variable rates: If you expect to get walloped when the next bill arrives, the Watchdog has a strategy that may get that bill lowered.

At the August meeting of the Texas Public Utility Commission, new Chairwoman Donna L. Nelson held a copy of an Aug. 19 Watchdog column about an Arlington man whose power bill jumped to $1,111 in one month because of electricity rate spikes.

“I’m sure you saw the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning about the gentleman who was with Dynowatt, and it was a variable rate plan,” she said. His rate jumped from 10.6 to 18.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, she explained.

“Under the new rules we adopted there were certain disclosures that had to take place on the bill, if you remember. And so this article calls into question whether those actually happened.

“I guess I would like enforcement staff to look into this and make sure that the disclosures that are supposed to be happening are happening.”

There it is! The key to getting a power bill lowered. It’s like that moment in school when the teacher tells students what will be on the test.

Read the full article at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operator of the state’s power grid, said in a report today that a new federal environmental regulation would reduce generating capacity and put the grid “at increasing risk of emergency events,” including rotating power outages.

The Jan. 1 implementation date for the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, designed to curb air pollution from power plants, leaves ERCOT with “an extremely truncated period” in which to assess the impact of the rule and “no realistic opportunity to take steps that could even partially offset the substantial losses of available operating capacity,” it said.

The report outlined three scenarios, with even the “best-case scenario” expected to result in the loss of an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 megawatts of generating capacity during peak consumption periods, ERCOT said.

“Had this incremental reduction been in place in 2011, ERCOT would have experienced rotating outages during days in August,” the report said.

Read more at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

When the temperature rises, the wind slows down.

Wednesday brought yet another unspeakably hot day to Texas and, alas, it was yet another day when wind energy failed the state’s consumers.

Indeed, as record heat and drought continue to hammer the Lone Star State, the inanity of the state’s multi-billion-dollar spending spree on wind energy becomes ever more apparent. On Wednesday afternoon, ERCOT, the state’s grid operator, declared a power emergency as some of the state’s generation units began to falter under the soaring demand for electricity. Electricity demand hit 66,552 megawatts, about 1,700 megawatts shy of the record set on August 3.

As I wrote in these pages earlier this month, Texas has 10,135 megawatts of installed wind-generation capacity, which is nearly three times as much as any other state. And yet, on Wednesday, all of the state’s wind turbines mustered just 880 megawatts of power when electricity was needed the most. Put another way, even though wind turbines account for about 10 percent of Texas’s 103,000 megawatts of summer electricity-generation capacity, wind energy was able to provide just 1.3 percent of the juice the state needed on Wednesday afternoon to keep the lights on and the air conditioners humming.

Continue reading “Texas Wind Energy Fails, Again“

AUSTIN (August 29, 2011)—The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, says demand for electricity could be at an all-time high Monday or Tuesday after a record-breaking weekend for usage, and they’re urging residents to conserve, especially between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

ERCOT handles about 85 percent of the state’s electric load, managing the flower of power to about 23 million customers.

Temperature records fell over the weekend in Central Texas.

On Sunday, the official temperature at Waco Regional Airport soared to 109 degrees, breaking the old record of 104 set in 1998 and the official high temperature Saturday for Central Texas rose to 110, shattering a 21-year-old record and edging to within just two degrees of the highest official temperature ever recorded here.

The high Saturday was four degrees higher than the previous record of 106 set in 1990.

Keep reading “Demand for Power in Texas Could Break All-Time Record Monday“

AUSTIN, Texas — The manager of the state’s electric grid has issued another plea for saving energy as the Texas heat wave lingers.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says a “vital” need for conservation exists through Tuesday. Consumers are urged to shut off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.

ERCOT this month has issued several conservation pleas for its region, which includes Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Abilene and the Rio Grande Valley.

ERCOT handles about 85 percent of the state’s electric load, managing the flow of power to about 23 million customers.

Source: The Republic

Global warming is extracting real costs, even in states where the governors are in denial.

Leon Trotsky is reputed to have quipped, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” Substitute the words “climate change” for “war” and the quote is perfectly suited for the governors of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, all of whom have ridiculed or dismissed the threat of climate change even as their states suffer record-breaking heat and drought.

In his book, “Fed Up!,” Texas governor and presidential aspirant Rick Perry derided global warming as a “phony mess,” a sentiment he has expanded on in recent campaign appearances. Susana Martinez, the governor of New Mexico, has gone on record as doubting that humans influence climate, and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma dismissed research on climate change as a waste of time. Her solution to the extraordinary drought: Pray for rain (an approach also endorsed by Perry).

Although they may dismiss climate change, a changing climate imposes costs on their states and the rest of us as well.

In Texas, the unremitting heat has been straining the capacity of the electric grid, killing crops and livestock, and threatening water supplies. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the grid’s governing body, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, bases its forecasts on the average demand over the previous 10 years. In a world without the threat of global warming, this is an entirely reasonable approach. But what if climate change makes the past an unreliable guide to the future? Then Texas is left with the present situation, in which the grid operator is forced to procure power in a tight market where wholesale prices have skyrocketed to 60 times normal.

Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times

Paying 7.8 cents per kilowatt-hour seemed like a good deal to John Wheat when he signed up for a month-to-month electricity plan in June.

But in July, when record-breaking heat led to record-breaking power use statewide, Wheat’s rate soared to nearly 19 cents per kilowatt-hour.

“I thought since I’m in the business and watch pricing every day, I could cancel at any time with a month-to-month,” said Wheat, a Sugar Land resident who sells TXU Energy electric plans to businesses. “Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account what they would charge based on demand.”

Rates in a variable plan can fluctuate monthly based on the company’s costs and other factors.

In recent weeks wholesale power prices – what power retailers pay for the electricity they sell to customers – spiked to as much as $3 per kilowatt-hour during some particularly hot days.

Wheat’s bill last month, $586.65, was the highest he’s ever paid to power his 1,450- square-foot house.

Read the full article at Chron.com

NEW YORK, Aug 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Fitch Ratings has upgraded Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC’s (Oncor) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-’. The long term security ratings have also been upgraded by one-notch. The short-term IDR is affirmed at F3′. The Rating Outlook is Stable. A full list of ratings actions is provided below.

The upgrade reflects consistent strong performance by the utility over the last two years driven by a rebound in sales volume growth and balanced outcome of recent rate cases that have led to a steady improvement in key credit metrics. Fitch expects profitability and credit metrics to continue to appreciate over the forecast period led by significant transmission build out that is well supported by constructive regulation. Management’s refinancing initiatives in the fall of 2010 extended a portion of 2012-13 debt maturities, thus, lowering re-financing risk emanating from the concerns surrounding the financial health of its ultimate parent, Energy Future Holdings Corp. (IDR CCC).

Read the full press release at Marketwatch.com.

As one of the smaller players in the retail electricity market, Arlington-based Texas Power’s biggest challenge is convincing the public to consider switching power providers, said David Chase, the company’s general manager.

“The biggest obstacle for any new entrant is market education,” Chase said.

Across Texas, about 57 percent of residential customers in the competitive market have switched providers since deregulation took effect in 2002, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

The other 43 percent remain with incumbent carriers, such as TXU Energy and Reliant.

Continue reading at the Dallas Business Journal.

Hundreds of thousands of electric customers have received double billings or experienced other hiccups in their normal monthly billing patterns as a result of a major computer software problem experienced by Dallas-based Oncor Electric Delivery.

Oncor spokeswoman Megan Wright said today that the problem occurred in the period from July 19-29, resulting in Oncor significantly delaying the transfer of electricity consumption data from meter readings to retail electric providers, or REPs, that have customers in Oncor’s sprawling service territory.

“As soon as we realized there was a problem, we started communicating with retailers during those 10 days…we have fixed the problem now, so there won’t be any more problems,” Wright said.

TXU Energy, the largest REP in North Texas, had “many” affected customers, numbering in the thousands, TXU spokesman Michael Patterson said today.

Read the full article at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Some North Texans are facing devastating sticker shock this summer as variable-rate electric plans skyrocket.

Some homeowners say the variable rates are like filling up your car only to find out that the price per gallon has jumped — and you have no choice but to pay.

Electric companies have every legal right to adjust the rates, but it also seems they’ll negotiate if you speak out. One customer’s rate was retroactively adjusted by more than $400 after NBC 5 investigated his bill.

Electric bills can look like a maze of line items with all sorts of bar graphs and fees. And many of those with variable-rate plans don’t look closely at the amount per kilowatt hour until it stings.

“It was shocking,” homeowner Ryan Walton said of his variable-rate bill from Dynowatt to cool his family of five in Arlington.

Read the full article at NBCDFW.com.

A prolonged drought, looming environmental rules and shortcomings in the incentives for building new power plants could cause even more problems with Texas’ electric grid in the next year.

A number of Texas power plants may need to cut back operations or shut down completely if the state’s severe drought continues into the fall, as water levels in many plant cooling reservoirs continue to drop, said Kent Saathoff, vice president of system planning and operations for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

At least one plant already has had to cut back on its output during the record-breaking year for temperatures and power demand in Texas.

“The bottom line is there’s not much we can do absent rain,” Saathoff said in an interview. “Cooling reservoirs just aren’t being replenished.”

Read the full article at MySanAntonio.com.

PRESS RELEASE – On August 19, 2011, the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved at an open meeting the settlement terms contained in the Modified Stipulation filed by Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC with respect to the settlement of Oncor’s previously filed rate review.

The rate review was filed in January 2011 with the PUCT (PUCT Docket No. 38929) and 203 cities based on a test year ended June 30, 2010. The PUCT, with Oncor’s input and that of cities and other participating parties, established a procedural schedule for the review. On April 8, 2011, Oncor filed, and the administrative law judges in the rate review granted, a motion requesting abatement of the procedural schedule in the rate review on the grounds that Oncor and the parties to the rate review had reached a Memorandum of Settlement that would settle and resolve all issues in the rate review. On May 11, 2011, Oncor filed a stipulation which incorporated the Memorandum of Settlement (the “Stipulation”) along with proposed tariffs and other documentation for the purpose of obtaining final approval of the settlement. The terms of the Stipulation include an approximate $137 million base rate increase and additional provisions to address franchise fees (discussed further below) and other expenses. Approximately $93 million of the increase became effective July 1, 2011 (on an interim basis), and the remainder will become effective by January 1, 2012. The Stipulation did not change Oncor’s authorized regulatory capital structure of 60% debt and 40% equity or its authorized return on equity of 10.25%. Under the terms of the Stipulation, Oncor cannot file another general base rate review prior to July 1, 2013, but is not restricted from filing wholesale transmission rate, transmission cost recovery factor, distribution-related investment or other rate updates and adjustments permitted by Texas state law and PUCT rules.

Read the full press release “SEC Filing: Public Utility Commission of Texas Approves $137M Base Rate Increase for Oncor Electric“

If you think it’s hot, just imagine what it’s like for those who can’t cover the high cost of utility bills and must suffer this unrelenting heat. With the temperature seemingly stuck at well over 100 and August only beginning, Texans are right to wonder about that extra buck or so that many of us pay atop our utility bills, supposedly to assist destitute seniors and the poor in paying their energy bills.

Answer: State legislators last spring reallocated it in what The Dallas Morning News aptly describes as a “tax-and-switch.”

Some might be happy lawmakers didn’t have to raise taxes for the next two years. But one way they managed this was by raiding funds that trusting constituents believe are dedicated for specific purposes. And that buck fee added to your utility bill each month is supposed to help folks with low or fixed incomes get at least some relief on sky-high utility bills. That would seem to be essential during the worst heat wave our state has seen in years. We might even call it a matter of life and death.

Read the full article at http://www.oaoa.com/opinion/bills-70528-utility-atop.html

Back to school could bring big power problems across Texas.

School air conditioners are already whining, and when classes start Monday, the state’s 8,317 public schools could strain the power grid.

“The main concern is as long as we’re still having these high temperatures, we’re going to have high electricity demand on the grid,” said ERCOT spokesperson Dottie Roark. “And whenever we have that high demand it means we’re tight on our capacity.”

Altogether, Texas schools add about 1500 megawatts of demand to the state’s power grid – enough to have caused rolling blackouts in both July and early August.

Continue reading at Nbcdfw.com.

While campaigning for the Presidency, then-Senator Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would “bankrupt” the coal industry. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency busily endeavors to fulfill the President’s pledge by imposing unnecessary regulations that are virtually impossible for coal-fired power plants to achieve.

Consider the Utility MACT rule, which seeks to cut US power plants’ emissions of mercury from 29 tons a year to just five. Yet EPA itself estimates that cutting even as much as 41 tons out of total emissions of 105 tons “is unlikely to substantially affect total risk.” In order to achieve these non-existent benefits, the EPA set emissions thresholds that no power plant currently meets.

Read the full article on globalwarming.org.

The Texas Public Utility Commission today approved a rate increase for Oncor Electric Delivery, the chief electric transmission and distribution company serving North Texas.

A portion of the rate increase already took effect July 1. When fully implemented on Jan. 1, the rate hike is expected to increase the electric bill of a typical residential customer about $1.60 per month.

The rate increase, when fully implemented, will raise Oncor’s annual revenues an estimated $136.7 million, an amount far less than the approximately $350 million boost in yearly revenues the company was seeking when it filed its rate request in January.

The agreed settlement was supported by Oncor and intervenors in the rate case, including the Steering Committee of Cities Served by Oncor, a group that includes Fort Worth, Arlington and other Tarrant County cities.

–Jack Z. Smith

Source: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/barnett_shale/2011/08/puc-approves-oncor-rate-hike-.html#ixzz1VruA5a9X

AUSTIN — As Texans battle through brutal summer heat, lawmakers may have pulled one over on the poor and the elderly.

According to a recent investigation by the Dallas Morning News, a state program called Lite-Up Texas collected about $130 million to help low income households with their electric bills. As it turns out, only $28 million will be given to them.

The House Senate Finance Committee approved a decision to redirect the funds in order to help balance the state budget.

Representative Mark Strama (D) Austin said this is not the first time that has happened.\ “It’s a scam that the legislature has been running on consumers and on low-income people since this program began,” Rep. Strama said.

Read the full article on KVUE.com.

The head of the Texas Public Utility Commission expressed concern Friday that a new federal air quality rule, set to take effect Jan. 1, will cause disruptions in electric service.

If implementation of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule is not delayed, “I have no doubt in my mind that this rule will result in reliability issues and rolling outages in Texas,” Donna Nelson said at the start of the commission’s meeting.

The rule, issued in early July by the Environmental Protection Agency, would require substantial reductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide at power plants in 27 states.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/08/19/3301808/new-epa-rule-could-lead-to-rolling.html#ixzz1VrZNMxMh

Ryan Walton may be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to residential electric bills skyrocketing because of the heat wave.

The Arlington man is on a variable-rate plan with Dynowatt, an Ohio company. In June, he paid 9.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. In July, his variable rate jumped to 10.6 cents. But this month, the rate vaulted to 18.3 cents.

His most recent electric bill was for $1,111.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/08/18/3300018/case-shows-downside-of-variable.html#ixzz1Vrv8ffe6

Aug. 17–Power generators in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, including El Paso Electric, could have done a better job of handling February’s big freeze to avoid power outages that affected several million people.

That’s the thrust of a 357-page report issued Tuesday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

The report also said Southwest power producers need to beef up their cold-weather defenses.

Find the full article at iStockanalyst

Four mothballed power plants will come back online in the coming weeks to help ensure Texas’ main electric grid can handle demand for the rest of the summer.

Two Houston-area plants owned by NRG Energy and two near Dallas owned by Garland Power & Light will return to service at the request of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

NRG says the two natural gas-fired units at the SR Bertron plant in Deer Park along the Ship Channel should be up and running by Sept. 1. The units, with a combined generating capacity of 292 megawatts, were taken offline in 2010.

Continue reading at Fuelfix.com

If you want to clean the air and save electricity and money, turn up your thermostat in the summer. Or else consider letting your power company do it for you.

Before you scream, “Keep your hands off my thermostat,” consider how such a policy, which the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is now considering, might avert a repeat of the recent power scare.

Industrial companies have long had contracts agreeing to reduce their electricity consumption — for a price — in order to avert sudden blackouts. So why shouldn’t residents, who easily can consume half of the state’s power on a hot summer day, have the same option?

Read more at the Dallas Morning News

Texas can do better than barely averting rolling blackouts.

Hot summers are certainly not novel in Texas, but for the electric grid, the triple digits recently pushed capacity to new levels.

Texas’ power grid set record level power use for three consecutive days last week. The high demand topped off at 68,294 megawatts on Wednesday. The near-peak electricity use continued through the end of the week, with the grid operator ERCOT calling on demand response on Thursday despite slightly lower consumption. Wind contributed about 2,000 megawatts during some of the most crucial hours on Wednesday. ERCOT issued a level 2 alert for rolling blackouts, although they were ultimately avoided. The grid survived, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Like PJM Interconnection just a few weeks ago, ERCOT did not call on its demand response services on the record-setting day, but rather the following day when some generation units were offline. ERCOT used about 1,150 MW of responsive reserves on Thursday and another 440 MW of emergency interruptible load shed, according to Mark Patterson, manager of demand integration at ERCOT.

Continue with “Texas Heat Wave: More Demand Response Needed“

El Paso city Rep. Cortney Niland says El Paso Electric’s rates and profits are too high.

El Paso Electric CEO David Stevens disagrees.

Niland wants the city and the Texas Public Utility Commission to open a new rate case to get electric rates reduced, and the city franchise fee further increased.

In light of Niland’s concerns, we asked Stevens to address some of them.

Q: Are El Paso Electric’s rates, which were increased last year, too high?

A: Since everyone (city of El Paso, Texas Public Utility Commission, Texas Attorney General’s office, and industrial customers groups) agreed to the (rate) settlement, I can only believe all parties believe our rates are fair and reasonable.

Read the full Q&A at MENAFN.com

*NOTE: This article address the state of electric deregulation in Pennsylvania.

I must confess that, as a conservative, I have an almost religious attachment to the power of free markets.

So, when Pennsylvania moved to deregulate the power industry, permitting consumers to select electricity providers on the basis of who had the best rate, I held out hope that, through the magic of the free market, consumers would experience improvements in services and lower prices.
electricity.jpgConsumers need clearer price information to make informed electric provider decisions.

However, free markets benefit consumers only under a set of conditions, the most important of which is transparency. While the consumer is perfectly capable of looking out for his or her own best interest, regulatory agencies can play an important role in forcing companies to disclose the true cost of their products and services.

Continue reading at PennLive.com

Much in the news in Texas these past few weeks have been new peak power records and several grid emergency conditions which saw the ERCOT power system narrowly avoid rolling blackout a time or two. Tom Fowler of the Houston Chronicle‘s Fuel Fix blog has been tracking the story closely, see selected links below.

Rebecca Smith provided a broad view of the events in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. She reports that power consumption has reached levels this summer than ERCOT had forecast would not be reached until 2014. Eight times this summer power consumption has exceeded the previous record, set last year, 65,766 MW. The new record, set August 3, is 68,294 MW.

Find the full article on TheEnergyCollective.com

AUSTIN, Texas – Peak electricity demand in sweltering Texas this summer already has surged past levels that were not expected until 2014, exposing a shortage of generating capacity likely to persist for several years, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

For the second year in a row, the organization responsible for the stability of Texas’ electrical grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has grossly underestimated summer demand in its forecasts. Last week, demand was so high across Texas that some large energy users had power disruptions, and Ercot narrowly avoided instituting rolling blackouts.

Ercot’s forecasts are based on an average of the past 10 summers, but the past two years have been unusually hot, pushing up energy use for air conditioning. Electricity demand in July was 12 percent higher than for any prior July.

Read more: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/consumer/110812-texas-power-grid#ixzz1V7Hnq7WU

August 12, 2011 7:09 PM

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Poor hit the hardest by Texas heat, legislature

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DALLAS – The temperature in Dallas today hit triple-digits. Over the past two months, it’s done that 41 times in 42 days.

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports Texas has a fund to help the poor pay their electricity bills. But somewhere between the fund and the people who need it, the money hit a short circuit.

In scorching Dallas, overheated seniors sought relief at an air conditioned Catholic charities center. Mary Ann Torres was also looking for financial relief. She can’t afford to power the two window air conditioners that struggle to keep her house bearable.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had it this hot before,” Torres says. On a fixed monthly income of $791 her electric bill can top $200.

There is a Texas program to help people like Torres. Every month most Texans are required to pay an extra dollar for their power bill. That money, about $146 million this year, is supposed to go to utilities to lower electricty bills for the poor. But this year the Lite-Up Texas program will release just $66 million. The state treasury is keeping the rest.

Find the full article at CBSNews

Economic growth and population increases, in addition to the triple-digit heat, contributed to the strain on the state’s largest bulk transmission grid for electricity this summer, according to the grid’s top official.

H.B. Doggett, president and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said conditions of the last two weeks have “posed a particularly serious challenge to the electric grid.”

After two days of declines in peak demand, Texans on Friday increased their demand for electricity to 65,282 megawatts — up from Thursday’s 63,434.

The top eight days of electricity demand ever experienced by ERCOT, which serves three-fourths of the state, occurred this month, including an all-time high of 68,295 on Aug. 3. There were also four days of energy-emergency alerts last week, but planned residential outages were avoided.

Read more: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/aug/12/factors-other-than-heat-wave-strain-texas-demand/

HOUSTON — The battle to avoid rolling blackouts as power demand reaches record levels in Texas’ unrelenting hot weather has become a daily drama that can turn on a few degrees or the unexpected shutdown of one of the state’s power-generating units.

Officials were cautiously hopeful Monday that expected lower temperatures this week across the state would mean the system will hold up without significant power outages for Texans.

Trip Doggett, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s electric grid operator, said “things are looking better,” as temperatures this week were forecast to be one to three degrees lower than last week, when the blistering heat contributed to a record peak daily demand of 68,295 megawatts. ERCOT escaped resorting to rotating residential power outages by shedding large industrial and commercial users by prior arrangement.

Keep reading, “Texas working to avoid blackouts from summer heat“

Every month in Houston and a few other parts of Texas, our electric bills include a fee — about $1 for the average household – to help the state’s poor and elderly pay for air-conditioning. But this year, during one of the hottest summers on record, the vast majority of that money isn’t being used to help grandmas or laid-off workers survive the killer heat. Instead, the money is lying dormant, trapped by our Legislature’s shell-game state budget.

Mealy-mouthed legislators call the shuffling the redirection of a dedicated fund. We call it stealing – both from electric ratepayers and from the poor and elderly.

As the Dallas Morning News recently reported, so far this fiscal year, the state has collected $130 million in those electric-bill fees but released only $28 million in aid. That unspent money and its interest have been adding up: By the end of our next two-year budget cycle, the state will have nearly $1 billion sleeping in the account.

Keep reading “Not cool: The Texas Legislature cooks its books – and leaves the elderly to cook”

As various companies release their financial information for the second quarter of 2011, the Energy Information Administration released its data on the wholesale electricity market for the first half of 2011.

According to the EIA, average on-peak spot electricity prices varied widely throughout the US from January – June 2011, much more so than in the same period in 2010. Western prices fell 14 – 26%, Midwest and Southeast prices fell by about 4%; and Texas and Northeast prices were up 4 – 13%.

“Key drivers of wholesale electric prices during the first half of 2011 were temperatures, natural gas prices, hydroelectric resource availability, and the disposition of nuclear power plants,” the government agency said.

Source: AOL Energy

Last week Texas’ electric grid was in a state of emergency nearly every day as high temperatures and multiple power plant outages pushed stretched resources thin. Thursday almost saw the state initiate rolling blackouts for the second time this year but just the fourth time in 21 years.

This week isn’t expected to be much better.

Weather reports are predicting a continuation of the brutal heat throughout Texas.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued a notice just after midnight warning that temperatures in much of Texas are expected to top 102 degrees and that from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. it expects a reserve capacity shortage. This is the same warning they issued just about every day last week.

Read the full article at Fuel Fix.

Apart from discomfort, scorching temperatures could bring along inconvenience.

Rolling blackouts are “a possibility” throughout the week, as the utility companies could cut off power for 15 to 45 minutes at a time in different areas to avoid full-on blackouts, said CPS Energy spokesman Victor Robledo.

The heat’s to blame, because power plants must work harder to keep up with the energy demand.

That, in turn, means three-digit temperatures aren’t the only thing hitting and breaking records.

“The amount of energy that’s being used is breaking records,” Robledo said. “The hotter it is outside, the longer your A.C. has to run and power plants are working very hard to keep up. Like anything, they need a break or breather also.”

Read more at MySanAntonioNews.com

After three straight days of beginning emergency procedures to save the Texas electrical grid from total blackout, the chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas spoke to us via telephone Friday morning.

Trip Doggett said Texans are conserving, and he appreciates it. But there is no time to relax; until the weather eases, customers must remain vigilant about electricity use.

Do you feel confident that Texans have been conserving electricity?

I do. We’ll still have a tight day today and we’re looking at weather forecasts. Looking at the national weather forecasts, I’m concerned about the next 15 days, with the high temperatures we’re seeing.

What’s the biggest challenge ERCOT faces right now?

Maintaining an adequate level of reserves during those hottest hours of the day. So, really between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. we’re finding it challenging to maintain enough reserve margin to allow us to react if we had a sudden loss of a large generating unit.

See more Q&A with Trip Doggett at the Dallas Morning News.

Texas’ grudge match with the Environmental Protection Agency is getting nastier and riskier, with the fallout threatening to reach the state’s power grid.

Want another reason to worry about the lights staying on? Or how about another hit to the economy?

You’ve heard lots of political posturing about Texas’ way of life being threatened by an overreaching federal government. This time, Gov. Rick Perry has a point.

Last month, the EPA included Texas in a new rule on cross-state pollution, catching many by surprise. Coal plants must reduce some emissions by half by Jan. 1, a deadline that has some operators saying they’ll cut production or shutter facilities.

That means the state may not have enough electricity to meet spiking demand. The risk became painfully obvious last week after the heat wave set records for electricity usage and emergency measures were taken to prevent outages.

Continue reading at Fort Worth Star-Telegram

DALLAS – ERCOT says it’s looking for every megawatt it can find. While the chance of rolling brownouts Friday evening is slim, this weekend will be another critical time for the electric grid.

Several power plants must come offline Saturday and Sunday for routine maintenance to make sure they can withstand another beating next week. Because of that, ERCOT will have less of an electric reserve than usual.

So, it has been asked that people continue to conserve electricity over the next 48 hours.

“I have never seen it in my career,” said Kent Saathoff, a spokesman with ERCOT, of the power problem. “It’s strictly due to the weather.”

ERCOT has been buying power from Mexico and other states all week. North Texas remains in an electric emergency until 7 p.m. ERCOT asks people to turn off appliances that are not necessary during this time.

Source: WFAA

Texas narrowly avoided rotating power outages Thursday afternoon as state officials ordered several large industrial customers, mostly on the Gulf Coast, to shut down after electricity reserves dropped dangerously low.

“The condition on the grid rapidly declined this afternoon in a short period of time,” said Dottie Roark, a spokeswoman with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

It was the first time this summer that ERCOT ordered a small group of industrial customers to shut off power to avoid rotating outages for other customers. Those industrial customers, mostly large plants, volunteer for power interruptions in exchange for lower rates.

Full article at the Austin American-Statesman

A presentation given by ERCOT officials on Monday warned that a combination of sustained high electricity demand and a high number of power plants going offline for unplanned maintenance could lead to a Level 1 Energy Emergency.

A day later, Texas’ main grid operator issued just such a warning as record temperatures drove up demand to a new record and some 3,000 megawatts of generation capacity was out of service for unexpected issues.

The presentation was given during a web-based meeting of ERCOT’s Generation Adequacy Task Force, one of several technical groups made up of officials from ERCOT, power plant operators, local utilities and other industry participants.

Read the full article at Fuel Fix.

Texas set another all-time record for electricity consumption Tuesday when demand in the blazing afternoon heat peaked at 67,929 megawatts from 4 to 5 p.m.

The record could be fleeting. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operator of the state’s major power grid, is projecting a record-busting 68,100 megawatts of demand today.

That would be the third consecutive record-smashing day, beginning with Monday’s peak demand, 66,867 megawatts, which eclipsed a nearly year-old record.

Wednesday’s high is forecast to be 110, three degrees hotter than the record for the date and the 33rd straight triple-digit day in North Texas. Tuesday’s high was also 110 and Monday’s was 107; both of those were also the hottest days ever for the date.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/08/02/3265177/state-shatters-day-old-record.html#ixzz1USMpDxUm

Electric deregulation in Texas didn’t necessarily translate into happier customers, according to a coalition of about 150 cities that buy electricity through the deregulated market.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that consumer complaints to the Texas Public Utility Commission have risen sharply since the industry was deregulated in 2002.

The paper reported that in the four years preceding retail electric deregulation there were fewer than 2,100 complaints per year. But for the time period of 2002-2010, there were an average of more than 12,000 complaints per year.

Read the full article at Dallas Business Journal.

Donna Nelson has been appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to be chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

The board encourages competition in Texas and ensures electric and telephone operations, services and rates are fair and reasonable.

Nelson is a former special assistant and advisor on energy, telecommunications and cable budget and policy issues in the governor’s office, and has served on the PUC since 2008. She assisted the Governor’s Competitiveness Council with the preparation of the Texas 2008 State Energy Plan, and is past director of the PUC telecommunications section and former legal advisor to the PUC chairman. She is also a former assistant attorney general of Texas, where she specialized in antitrust lawsuits.

Source: Austin Business Journal

Months of deep drought and an unyielding weather pattern that has pushed temperatures into the triple digits for 28 straight days in North Texas have sharply increased the demand for electricity and water with the hottest period of the year still to come.

Every corner of Texas reports drier-than-normal conditions,

Full article on Dallas Morning News, for subscribers only.

The bad news: Texas-New Mexico Power Company (TNMP) customer’s bills are going up.

The good news: because the City of Friendswood and other cities fought TNMP at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC), the bills aren’t increasing as much.

TNMP had asked for a $4.80 increase per month for five years and a $4.17 monthly increase for the following seven years.

Their increase is to fund an Advanced Metering System.

Attorneys working for the Gulf Coast Coalition of Cities (of which Friendswood is a member) negotiated a reduced residential surcharge of $3.40 per month for the full 12 years.

Full article at YourHoustonNews.com.

Texas’ electric grid has experienced a couple of hiccups this year that have been blamed on weather extremes.

In February many parts of the state experienced rolling blackouts when dozens of power plants were knocked offline by several days of extreme cold.

And at the end of June the Electric Reliability Council of Texas called on consumers to cut back power use during peak afternoon hours when high temperature coincided with a handful of unexpected plant outages.

The same happened last week when a whopping 3,800 megawatts of power plant capacity went offline unexpectedly.

The February event has been looked at by state regulators, who now say it does not appear market manipulation was behind the outages, while a federal report concluded cold weather was indeed behind the outages, but that there’s more power plant operators could have done to avoid them.

One group of analysts isn’t buying it, however.

McCullough Research, a Portland, Oregon-based firm best known to some for its work turning the light on some of Enron’s electricity market manipulation schemes in that region several years ago, says the weather extremes Texas experienced earlier this year are nothing new.

Keep reading at FuelFix.com.

City utility customers will see a slight increase in the bills they receive in August.

During a closed-door session at Tuesday’s meeting, the City Council was briefed about an increase requested by the Lower Colorado River Authority which is the city’s wholesale provider of electricity.

Assistant City Manager Rick Cortes said LCRA had notified the city of a 6.99 percent increase in the PCRF (power cost recovery factor).

“We’re going to absorb some of that increase,” Cortes said, noting that an increase of only 3.2 percent is planned for city utility customers.

For the average home, the increase will amount to $2.06 a month, he said.

For the full article, visit Seguin Gazette.

Texas’ electric grid operator said Tuesday that a new regulation limiting pollution from coal-fired power plants threatens the state’s ability to “keep the lights on.”

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s deregulated power market, said it fears that some utilities will shutter coal-fired plants to comply with the rule, which significantly restricts emissions of sulfur dioxide.

“This is one of those cases where we believe it is our role to voice our concern that Texas could face a shortage of generation necessary to keep the lights on in Texas within a few years,” ERCOT president and chief executive H.B. “Trip” Doggett said after a meeting of the council’s board of directors.

Subscribers can read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20110719-texas-electric-regulator-says-new-epa-rule-could-mean-outages.ece?action=reregister#ixzz1TEtJRCSv

Although temperatures are soaring to 100-degree levels throughout the United States, much of the country seems to be well-supplied with electricity, according to Platts, a global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information.

Overall electricity demand has been hard-hit in general since the economic recession. 2009 saw the biggest decline in electricity demand in 60 years, and it hasn’t fully recovered.

During peak demand times, smaller less-efficient generators, called peakers, are called on to help meet demand and being the highest cost generator, they tend to establish the price of power.

Those peakers are natural gas fired and historically low natural gas prices are keeping the cost of operating those units lower than they would have been just a few years ago.

The growth in demand response in the power markets may also be keeping a lid on prices. Demand response services allow large consumers, usually industrial or commercial, to get paid for reducing power usage during times of peak demand.

On the supply side, electricity generating capacity has been built up over the last decade, after shortages led to major price spikes during 1998-2000.

The Eastern and Western Interconnections have had little trouble so far keeping up with demand this summer. However, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, which is more geographically isolated has asked for conservation from consumers after the unexpected outage of a nuclear power plant the week of July 11.

Continue reading at Electric, Light & Power.

In the two weeks since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a new rule limiting cross-state air pollution from power plants, Gov. Rick Perry and state environmental officials have been complained about the regulation in the usual terms — saying it’s a job-killer, fueled by the federal government’s thirst for regulation.

Perry called the new rule “heavy-handed and misguided.” Texas Commission on Environmental Quality chairman Bryan Shaw wrote in an op-ed that the rule “will cut Texas jobs, cut Texas economic growth, increase Texas energy costs and harm Texas energy security.”

It’s more of the same from Texas officials responding to EPA regulation, debunking science in the name of jobs and industry. But it’s a delicate time for the EPA, with a slate of new rules coming out in the next few months, and resistance in the state getting better organized.

In the op-ed, Shaw said the new cross-state rule will “impose great costs on coal-fired power plants, causing some to shut down or curtail operations,” and warned of blackouts “which create serious health risks to Texans dependent upon reliable energy.”

Continue reading “Complaints from Texas over cross-state pollution rules hint at coming battles with EPA“

Here’s an excerpt:
“With record heat goes record electric consumption as Texans try to keep cool. ERCOT — the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — has also been breaking records this year.

Dottie Roark, an ERCOT spokeswoman, said the record peak-demand for this month was set July 14 when 64,226 megawatts were used. Before this year, the highest for July was 63,400 megawatts set in 2009. Texas broke that record several times this year — July 8, 13 and 14.

“To put things in perspective, the all-time peak demand was 65,776 megawatts that was recorded for Aug. 23, 2010,” Roark said.”

Find the full article at the San Angelo Standard-Times.

(July 18, 2011)–The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), operator of the state’s bulk transmission grid, asks everyone to reduce electricity use during peak hours from 3 to 7 p.m. UTSA is doing its part by saving 2.5 megawatts (MW) per day by using a natural gas generator and by raising thermostats two degrees across the Tri-Campus community.

The appeal to reduce electricity use comes with the extreme heat and rising demand for electricity for air conditioning. A new record for peak electricity demand in July was set Thursday, July 14 with 64,226 MW.

Continue reading “Electric Reliability Council of Texas says to reduce electricity usage in peak hours“

HOUSTON, July 15, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ — Texas’ new hydraulic fracturing disclosure law – signed by Gov. Rick Perry on Friday – demonstrates that states and oil and gas producers can work together to increase public confidence in the industry as it develops abundant, cleaner-burning natural gas resources, said G. Steven Farris, chairman and chief executive officer of Apache Corporation (NYSE, Nasdaq: APA).

Perry signed the disclosure law at a ceremony in Denton, Texas. He also signed a bill encouraging development of natural gas-fueled transportation infrastructure in the “Texas Triangle” linking Houston, San Antonio, Austin and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and another authorizing air-quality monitoring in the Barnett Shale area of North Texas.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/15/3772279/texas-hydraulic-fracturing-disclosure.html#ixzz1SUzmhtt6

As Friday’s heat was giving us the dubious distinction of cracking a top 10 list, Tarrant County health and social service officials reached out to people who need help surviving.

When the mercury passed 100 about noon, 2011 tied 1993 for 10th place for consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures.

By late afternoon, it was 107, tying with 1978 for the highest July 15 temperature.

A possibly more depressing record is that Friday’s early-morning low of 82 tied a record for the date set in the infamous summer of 1980.

For many, those numbers mean only misery.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/15/3224933/dfw-officials-groups-helping-residents.html#ixzz1SUzG3T7K

Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission and a champion of electric deregulation, vacated his post Friday to accept an appointment from Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas Railroad Commission.

Smitherman, 53, indicated that he would strongly support natural gas production in North Texas’ Barnett Shale as a member of the Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry.

In departing comments at Friday’s PUC meeting, Smitherman said that as a result of “technology and God-given resources, we’re able to access the shale plays and have what looks to be a long-term, if not 100-year or more, supply of natural gas.”

That bountiful supply is “incredibly important,” he said, because it will help keep electricity prices low.

Read the full article, PUC chief steps down for post on Railroad Commission

Dereg not working
Once again, Mitch Schnurman has it wrong. Deregulating our electricity was not good and is not good. (See: “More proof that electric competition is working,” Wednesday)

He says the competition is “working.” It is only working toward putting money into middlemen’s pockets. The retail electric providers do not produce or transmit one kilowatt of electricity; they just buy and resell it at a profit.

Maybe that is why more than 100 Texas cities have banded together to fight deregulation and expose deregulation as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Rates are low, purely and simply, because of the Barnett Shale play and other recent gas finds in the U.S. There is a glut. This will not always be the case. Then watch where the price of a kilowatt-hour goes, especially in light of the fact that natural gas is used in Texas as the marginal fuel when figuring electricity prices.

Maybe one of the goofiest things he says is, “Consider that investors, not ratepayers, paid for the new generation, representing more than half of today’s total capacity. And since then, rates have declined, often sharply.” Does he not think that the investors are not charging this back to us, and at a profit to boot?

– John T. Johnson, III, Arlington

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/07/3207334/fourth-of-july-electric-dereg.html#ixzz1Rp2SCe4S

On June 27, people from all over the state had a scare when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas had a step one emergency event.

Flashbacks of the rolling blackouts held during the snowstorm this past February went through their minds in this over 100-degree weather.

Fortunately though, the emergency was not caused by an over-usage of electricity, but rather equipment breakdowns, according to Dottie Roark, spokesperson for ERCOT.

“We lost three units that were fairly large, which put us below what we needed to have to run normally,” she said.

According to Roark, ERCOT made an appeal to the public that day, asking people to limit their use of electricity from 3-7 p.m., when it is used the most, and to delay using larger appliances until after 7 p.m.

“We were only in step one for a day and all of the generation plants are now up and running,” she said.

Roark said she does not expect ERCOT to ask utility companies to hold rolling blackouts during this summer even though it has been warmer than usual.

“Over the past 21 years, we have only had to do three rolling blackouts and none of them have been in the summer,” she said.

Continue reading Hot weather calls for energy conservation

Taking a cue from the Legislature, the Public Utility Commission of Texas has dropped a proposal that would have mandated that electricity generators buy renewable energy other than wind.

The three-member state commission in December published a proposal to require that generators get 500 megawatts, or about 2 percent of all the electricity generated in the state, from a renewable source other than wind.

Friday is the deadline to act on that proposal, but it is not included on the commission’s agenda, dealing a setback to solar, geothermal and other renewable energy sources.

“I was hoping and expecting that they would act on this long overdue rule,” said Cyrus Reed, the conservation director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. “They’ve lost an opportunity to jump-start this market.”

Keep reading at Austin American-Statesman.

Texas is the top energy-consuming state in the U.S., accounting for 12 percent of the nation’s total energy use, according to data released this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Lone Star state is followed by California (8.5 percent), Florida (4.5 percent), New York (4 percent), and Illinois (4 percent).

The fact that California uses less energy than Texas despite having a larger population (37 million versus 25 million, according to the 2010 U.S. Census) could be the result of its more progressive energy-efficiency policies. For example, California was the first state to adopt a minimum efficiency standard for televisions, which has helped draw national attention to the issue of energy use with all electronics.

Keep reading at ConsumerReports.org.

The threat of a power shortage in the state is over, but Texans are still encouraged to conserve electricity.

On Monday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued a power watch across the state when electricity reserves dropped below 2,300 megawatts.

ERCOT, which manages the flow of electricity to 75 percent of Texas’ land area, asked Texans to manage their electricity use between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday after three generating units went out, according to ERCOT communications manager Dottie Roark.

Roark said the three units combined to produce 2,000 megawatts of energy. Their outage forced the state to move into reserves and triggered the power watch.

She said generator outages are common, but not always at Monday’s magnitude. She emphasized the problem was fixed and said no long-term ramifications exist.

“That was a short-term event on Monday with three units going out,” Roark said. “We actually do have plants trip off all the time. Its fairly common.”

Continue to ReporterNews.com

Having just moved back to Maryland after 23 years in Dallas, I think I can bring some insight as to Texas’ merits vs. Maryland. (“A Texas remedy for what ails Maryland jobs,” June 22)

First, there is the myth that Texas is cheaper to live in than other states. Go to any online cost-of-living calculator and you will find that the cost of living in Maryland is 4 percent to 4.5 percent less than living in Texas, even with the Maryland state income tax. If you earned $50,000 a year in Texas, you’d have an extra $20-$25 a week in your pocket simply by moving to Maryland.

My experience is that property taxes in Maryland are half of those in Texas. I paid almost $8,000 a year in Texas for a home of similar value as the one I purchased in Maryland, which is only taxed $4,000. The state sales tax in Texas is 8.25 percent vs. 6 percent in Maryland, so anything one buys at a store is 2.25 percent cheaper here. While property values may have soared here during the last decade while Texas homeowners did not see a similar rise in home prices, since the housing bubble burst, you can buy a better house in Maryland for the same money than you can in Texas. I lived less than a mile from President Bush in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas and moved to Pikesville, and I can afford a bigger, better house here than the one I owned in Dallas. In Texas, I paid 10.9 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity versus 8.5 cents in Maryland. It costs more to cool your home in Texas than it does to heat a house in Maryland. I can afford to water my lawn here, not so much back in Dallas.

Read the full op-ed at The Baltimore Sun.

* Falling electric reserves prompt emergency action
* Real-time power prices jump above $1,000
(Updates to show that emergency warning has been canceled)

HOUSTON, June 27 (Reuters) – The Texas electric grid operator on Monday canceled an emergency warning after
residents and businesses limited power use amid triple-digit temperatures and the unexpected loss of about 2,000 megawatts of generation.

No rolling blackouts were reported.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said power demand reached 62,762 megawatts between 4 and 5 p.m.
(2100-2200 GMT), setting a new record for June consumption.

Continue reading at Reuters.

The state’s main electric grid operator is calling for Texans to be frugal in their power usage during the peak hours of 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., but that doesn’t mean the state’s on the verge of an energy crisis.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says the peak demand forecast for today (Tuesday) is 64,255 megawatts (at least as of 8:30 a.m.). That number often changes throughout the day, and you can find the latest update here.

From Denmark:

Head consultant Martin Salamon of the Danish Consumer Council regards the deregulation of the Danish electricity market as a disaster that has resulted in higher electricity prices for households

The deregulation of the electricity market in Denmark six years ago has not benefited Danish housholds to the extent it was expected to, according to a new report worked out by consultancy company Ea Energianalyse for the Danish Energy Agency. According to the report, households pay about DKK 0.04 (EUR 0.01 USD 0.01) too much for each kilowatthour as only 10% of all households have switched their electricity suppliers. There are also many small companies that have not switched their suppliers.

Keep reading here.

From Connecticut:

The head of the soon-to-be-established Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said Monday that Connecticut ratepayers should begin to see the cost of energy fall in six months to a year.

Commissioner Dan Esty said in an interview with The Associated Press that he expects a “measurable rate reduction” as a result of state legislation enacted earlier this month that brings the state deeper into the purchase of electricity.

Find the full article on Forbes.com.

Austin Energy and the Texas Legislature are taking different paths on solar energy.

One of the nation’s largest solar farms is being erected east of Austin, near Webberville, to generate power for Austin Energy, while the Texas Legislature has twice refused to create financial incentives to encourage the solar industry in Texas.

At the end of the legislative session in 2009, partisan bickering killed a host of unrelated bills, including solar legislation. This year, solar bills couldn’t even clear a committee in a session marked by a no-tolerance attitude to new taxes or fees, or higher electric bills, for that matter.

Texas is the nation’s largest energy market, but it ranked 10th last year in the amount of solar photovoltaic generation installed.

Find the full article on Austin American-Statesman.

Record-breaking heat and high electricity usage caused a number of electrical-service interruptions throughout the Texas Panhandle today.

A breaker at the Canadian substation failed, causing about 500 Xcel Energy customers to lose power. About 100 of those remained without electricity about 8 p.m. today.

In Amarillo, about 100 customers, scattered throughout the city, do not have electrical service.

Click here to read the full article, “Panhandle cities affected by power outages“

A perfect storm — or rather a lack of anything resembling a rain cloud — has some residents fearing what could be an unusually expensive summer on the home front.

“We’re being very conservative on our electric bill at the moment,” said Ray Jones, a resident of the Upper Kirby District inside Houston’s Loop, adding that even with the thermostat set at 76 degrees his electricity bill is still about the same as last year’s $250 for the most recent month.

He said while record June temperatures, which have topped 100 degrees, will eventually add to the cost of cooling his home, the drought will likely cost him and his neighbors far more in the long run.

Keep reading “Bracing for long, hot potentially costly summer“

So much for educated guesses.

Earlier this month Texas’ grid operator, ERCOT, said it expected this summer’s peak electricity usage to be 63,898 megawatts, nearly 2,000 MW less than last summer’s record-breaking peak of 65,776 MW set on Aug. 23.

These seasonal peak estimates are based in large part on economic forecasts, so it might appear that ERCOT was saying the outlook for Texas’ economy wouldn’t be quite as robust this summer as last.

This month’s record-breaking heat seems to be foiling that peak power use prediction, however.

Click thru to read the full article, Texas may break peak power prediction mark today

A perfect storm — or rather a lack of anything resembling a rain cloud — has some residents fearing what could be an unusually expensive summer on the home front.

“We’re being very conservative on our electric bill at the moment,” said Ray Jones, a resident of the Upper Kirby District inside Houston’s Loop, adding that even with the thermostat set at 76 degrees his electricity bill is still about the same as last year’s $250 for the most recent month.

Continue reading at Your Houston News.

Record heat waves across the US this summer could force businesses and homes to use more electricity, potentially straining power grids.

But state electricity grid operators ranging from California to Texas said they have enough power on hand to meet the demands of peak usage during the summer months.

Continue reading at AOL to find out anticipated Texas electricity demands this summer.

New Braunfels officials have decided not to renew the city’s electricity contract with the Lower Colorado River Authority Lower Colorado River Authority Follow this company when it expires in June 2016.

City council members voted unanimously Monday to look elsewhere for power. The Central Texas city is the third recently to announce going with another provider, as reported previously by the Austin Business Journal here.

Article courtesy of Austin Business Journal.

Austin Energy hopes to thwart a state environmental group’s effort to impose stricter pollution controls at the Fayette Power Plant, a coal-burning facility east of Austin that supplies about a third of the city’s electricity.

On Tuesday a federal judge granted Austin Energy’s request to intervene in a lawsuit from the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

City officials say that the lawsuit, should it succeed, would raise the cost of electricity and possibly reduce the plant’s output — just as the city is preparing to raise its base electric rate for the first time in since 1994.

Read the full article at The Austin American-Statesman.

PATTISON – Opponents of proposed power lines that would cross Waller County questioned representatives of CenterPoint Energy, the Texas Public Utilities Commission and other agencies Tuesday night in a special workshop of the Waller County Commissioners Court.

Landowners fearing having their property taken and/or reduced in value due to the high-voltage towers peppered the panel with questions following their presentation about the need for the transmission lines. Though the tone of the meeting was cordial, the message was clear.

“What is the best way we landowners can stop the project?” asked a member from the audience.

Keep reading this article at Your Houston News.

AMARILLO – Hot temperatures and winds could push electricity demand in the region to its limits today, the first time for such early summer demand in more than a decade.

The National Weather Service forecast hotter than 100 degree days through the rest of the week, along with gusting winds and blowing dust.

But the same weather’s grim toll on the Texas Panhandle cotton crop could actually ease electricity demand in July, and planners were optimistic they would not see any trouble keeping air conditioners humming this summer.

Continue to Lubbock Online.

TXU Energy launched prepaid electricity service Tuesday, bringing a product that was once on the fringes of the market squarely into the mainstream.

TXU, a unit of Energy Future Holdings, said Tuesday in a news release it will offer a pay-as-you-go pricing plan that doesn’t require customers to make deposits. TXU charges 11.3 cents per kilowatt hour for the service, less than some prepaid plans, but customers can find better deals by shopping for standard plans.

While a TXU spokesman and other industry officials say the prepaid service gives customers greater flexibility and control of their light bills, consumer advocates say they hate the idea.

“The people who are selling it are acting like this is a service that everybody wants, that’s desirable,” said Carol Biedrzycki, executive director of Texas Ratepayers’ Organization to Save Energy.

But, she said, “You’re going to take this service because you don’t have money for a security deposit. You’re not going to take it because it sounds like such a great idea.”

The full article is available at The Dallas Morning News for subscribers-only.

It’s a bit extreme to say everything is coming up roses in Pennsylvania’s deregulated electric markets, but by and large the transition to deregulation has been a success.

That’s saying a lot given that much of the deregulating occurred during a major economic recession. The Keystone State could have gone the way of California when it deregulated and had energy shortfalls and massive public outcries. But that didn’t happen here. Quite the opposite.

Read the full article at Pennlive.com

HOUSTON, June 10, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ — CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) today announced that the Texas Supreme Court has denied all motions for rehearing in its true-up appeal. The matter will now move to the Texas Public Utility Commission for action consistent with the Court’s March 18, 2011 decision.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/10/3691590/texas-supreme-court-denies-rehearing.html#ixzz1PBduGyRt

The following article is from an Australian publication and refers to the deregulated electricity market in Australia.

PRICE cuts resulting from competition and efficiencies was the promises we were sold when the State Government took control of water and forced amalgamation on us.

We were also told electricity prices wouldn’t rise with deregulation. But four years later, the average family household is paying about $936 more for these necessities.

And this figure could rise again with the announcement of more rates and electricity increases from July 1.

Continue reading So much for lower cost for basics

TYLER, TX (KLTV) – With temperatures climbing close to the triple digits, more people are pushing their air conditioners to the max.

With it getting so hot so soon in the summer, many are wondering if the power grid could get overworked like it did a few months ago when Tyler faced record cold conditions.

Energy officials weigh in to talk about what’s being done to keep air conditioners blowing and tempers from flaming.

“They had some freezing problems. Just some mechanical issues, and those power plants started tripping offline,” says Charles Hill of Oncor, referring to February’s freezing temperatures.

That’s when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas told Oncor to initiate rolling blackouts. Hill says the blackouts were necessary to prevent a complete overload.

Jump to KLTV.com to read the full article.

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–The summer’s heat came a little early this year for large parts of the U.S. stretching from the southwest to the northeast, causing demand and prices for electricity prices to pop higher.

Typically temperatures tend to peak in July and August, but this week they have already hit record levels for this time of the year in places like Houston, Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

“It’s certainly an extreme weather pattern,” said Accuweather.com meteorologist Dave Houk. “From Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas up to Arkansas, the big heat has been the most persistent and it comes in waves across the northern …

The full article is available online for Wall Street Journal subscribers.

WACO – Oncor customers in Waco will soon see an increase in their electricity bills.

The City Council approved a negotiated rate hike that was less than half what Oncor originally asked for.

The average homeowner will see a monthly bump of about $2.35. Oncor had asked for a 5-dollar hike.

Waco is part of a 160-city coalition statewide that negotiated that settlement. That provider had filed for a 14.6% rate increase, or about $353 million dollars.

They settled for a 6.2 percent residential hike over the next two years.

Article by KXXV, News 25 in Waco.

Grayson County, Texas — Oncor has reached a settlement with several cities including Sherman, Denison and Gainesville that will raise the rates of hundreds of people in the region.

On a hot sunny day you’ll find young Texomans taking a dip at the pool and nearly everyone else inside a cool air conditioned building — to avoid the hot sun.

Montreal Orum works at Sugar Bear catering, that provides everything from BBQ to flavored snow cones which gives people a much needed cool down on a hot summer day.

“We have the Sugar Bear Hero with pickles and onions and we are the boss of the BBQ sauce you need to try us, we have the best sauce on this side of the state,”said Montreal Orum.

To make that sauce and other treats — their business is dependent on large amounts of electricity — so when they heard about a potential rate increase from Oncor — they knew it could have a major impact on their catering.

“If we have more catering going on then the electricity will go up but I know for a fact that we’re using entirely to much it really kills us with the ice machine,”said Orum.

“Its a rate increase, nobody likes to see rate increases and we don’t like the increases but our costs go up,”said Todd Thompson of Oncor.

Keep reading Oncor rates go up around North Texas.

This week the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the power grid for the state’s deregulated market, said it expects the state will have plenty of power to meet peak electricity demand this summer. That’s reassuring after a colder-than-expected winter produced rolling blackouts in February. ERCOT’s annual summer assessment, though, assumes that electricity demand will fall this summer from last year’s record. ERCOT now says it should have plenty of reserve cushion to meet that demand, although an assessment earlier in the year raised concerns about ERCOT’s ability to meet demand over the longer term.

Continue reading ERCOT needs a weatherman to know which way the temperature goes

GALVESTON — The city is reviewing whether it’s getting what it pays for when it comes to streetlights.

At issue is a little known tariff imposed by CenterPoint Energy for the amount of light that’s supposed to shine from each streetlight bulb. The tariff is embedded in the bill the city receives from its retail electric provider, Cavallo Energy.

The review comes after The Daily News began asking questions last month about whose responsibility it is to maintain streetlights and how much the city pays for them.

It’s good to see government think outside the box, but the recent unraveling of an ambitious plan to secure a long-term, low-cost source of electricity for Lubbock and three other communities was just a bit too far from the square container, according to issues raised by the Texas Attorney General.

Now, as the various elements of the plan are being dismantled, it’s important to not shelve the creative thinking just because this effort didn’t work. A court ruled it had a fatal flaw in its foundation, but the concept of finding non-traditional methods of meeting public needs should survive the postmortem.

North American power supply expected to meet demand this summer as Texas system faces increased scrutiny after winter outages

Reserve margins across North America’s regional power systems are expected to be sufficient to cope with increased demand during the peak summer period, according to the latest forecasts.

Read more: http://www.risk.net/energy-risk/news/2075806/market-focus-summer-reliability-outages#ixzz1OcinWIVv

Some Lewisville residents could see an increase in their electric bill if the city council approves a negotiated resolution.

Lewisville City Council members will vote on an ordinance approving a negotiated resolution between the city and Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC during Monday’s council meeting. The resolution, if passed, will increase electric rates by $2.35 per month for the average residential customer.

Read the full article here.

We reported earlier this week that Texas’ main grid operator expects to have 18.4 percent more power generation capacity available than the expected peak demand, well above the state-mandated 13.75 percent margin.

Turns out officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas made an error and double-counted some power plants. The real reserve margin: 17.5 percent.

Read the full article at Fuel Fix.

KENDALL COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) – Former Pedernales Electric Cooperative lawyer, Walter Demond, was found guilty on Tuesday of three felony charges.

The Kendall County jury found Demond guilty of theft, misapplication of fiduciary property and money laundering.

The jury recommended that Demond be placed on probation for 10 years and fined $10,000 for illegally diverting funds from the cooperative’s members.

Click to read Former PEC lawyer found guilty

Texas environmental activists are pleased with changes in fracking disclosure laws and renewable energy initiatives that cleared the state legislature this session, but they are unhappy with cuts to state parks, delays in air quality requirements for oil and gas miners, and environmental legislation that died before making it to the Governor’s desk.

During a telephone news conference with reporters today, environmentalists with local chapters of Public Citizen, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund and the SEED Coalition explained what they liked and didn’t like about this session.

Continue reading and listen to an audio clip here.

President Obama has chosen his new commerce secretary. He’s John Bryson, former chief executive of Edison International, the large Southern California electric utility.

By choosing Bryson, 67, who sits on the boards of Boeing and Walt Disney Co., the president appears to be sending another pro-business signal to corporate America.

Read the full article here.

The utility faces resistance from homeowners, city planners, environmentalists and political conservatives worried about health effects, accuracy, privacy and jurisdiction.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s plan to install ‘smart meters’ in this affluent Bay Area community of eco-friendly homes, yoga studios and organic restaurants has unleashed a torrent of anger among customers who fear the devices will expose them to hazardous pulses of electromagnetic radiation.

Hundreds of Fairfax residents have posted red-and-white “Smart meter not here” signs beside their mechanical meters as a warning to PG&E technicians. A few have secured their spinning-dial meters with gates, cages and padlocks.

“There’s no way they’re taking my meters away, and I don’t want them putting things on my property that I don’t want,” said local Realtor Diane Hoffman, fastening a padlock onto a wooden gate guarding her home meter.

Visit the LA Times to continue reading Opponents of PG&E ‘smart meters’ stand firm

AUSTIN — In a session marked by tight budgets and close-fisted lawmakers, the business of making big bucks still came out on top — leaving penny-pinching consumers almost empty-handed, advocates say.

While insurance customers, electricity rate payers and homeowners got a handful of wins in what one advocate called “some quiet ways,” a decidedly pro-business Legislature largely protected some of the biggest moneymakers in the state from consumer-friendly disclosures, rate caps and reviews, and tax raids.

Some lawmakers and consumer advocates say that even as legislators chattered about recession and unemployment, they still listened more to big business than they did to the average consumer.

The full article is available to Dallas Morning News subscribers only. Continue reading Consumers see few gains in legislative session, advocates say

MAYS LANDING — Electricity supply rates will decrease for Atlantic City Electric customers this summer because of lower-priced contracts taking effect June 1.

Residential customers using an average of 1000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month will see their bills decrease by about 4.5 percent, from $188.62 to $182.80, resulting in a monthly savings of $5.80.

The rate decreases are a result of lower commodity fuel prices, which were obtained through a competitive bid process to supply electricity to Atlantic City Electric’s Basic Generation Service customers. Supply refers to the generation of electricity.

Continue reading Atlantic City Electric announces rate decreases for its customers

The typical Belton resident will pay an additional $2.35 per month for electricity under the terms of a rate settlement struck between Texas cities and their utility provider, Oncor Electric Delivery, LLC.

Consultants on behalf of cities serviced by Oncor – including Belton and Temple – settled on the 6.1 residential rate increase last month after the utility giant filed a request with the Public Utility Commission (PUC) in January in the hopes of raising rates by about 15 percent.

Source: Temple Daily Telegram

Walter Demond, the former Clark, Thomas & Winters attorney who represented the Pedernales Electric Cooperative for decades, took the witness stand in his own trial today.

Under questioning from his attorney, Gerry Morris, Demond said he did not steal, misapply funds, or launder money, which are the charges he is facing.

Morris asked Demond how he now feels about the legal bills his firm sent to Pedernales that he is accused of inflating. “I hate to say it under oath, but I feel pretty stupid now,” he replied.

Prosecutors say Demond inflated bills to Pedernales and used $700,000 in co-op money to secretly pay relatives of co-op executives over several years.

Read the full article at the Austin American-Statesman.

Two key pieces of legislation currently pending in Austin, Senate Bills 655 and 661, could impact what millions pay for utility service, according to RechargeTexas, a consumer group that advocates for affordable electric power for Texas cities and their residents by promoting a more transparent, competitive marketplace.

In a release on May 18, the group said that for anyone with gas or electric service these bills are important. But crucial details remain to be worked out.

You can find out more about SB 655 and 661–plus the ins and outs of important energy legislation–at the state’s website for energy consumers: RechargeTexas.com.

Residential electricity bills will go up an average of $1.72 per month during the coming year, according to a settlement with Oncor that the Dallas City Council approved this week. The average hike is based on consumption of 1,000 kilowatt hours, Dallas officials said.

The Dallas City Council is approving a negotiated rate hike with Oncor likely to result in a 6.1 percent increase in electricity bills across the region. The impact on the average residential customer will average about $1.72 per month, city officials say.

On Jan. 7, Oncor filed a request to hike rates by 16.2 percent in all the cities in their jurisdiction, saying they’d seen declines in customer growth and consumption per customer, and had made new investments in infrastructure.

Dallas joined 145 other cities in the “Steering Committee of Cities Served by Oncor” — formed in the late 1980s — in opposing the rate hike and negotiating for a lower one.

The Steering Committee hired consultants to look at the issues and legal council to check out the legal details. They reached the settlement with Oncor on April 11.

Continue reading Dallas joins 145 cities in negotiating a rate increase with Oncor

Does a major power project planning to light Lubbock and the Panhandle with hundreds of millions of dollars even exist?

High Plains Diversified Energy Corp. will face tough questions Friday from its biggest known customer, from a jilted community and from the Texas attorney general as it seeks a judge’s approval for $1.5 billion in debt.

Documents filed separately Wednesday by representatives of Lubbock and the attorney general suggest far more limited powers than what the project has cited in its quest to bring power from outside Odessa to Lubbock and the surrounding region, and question its very legal existence.

“To begin with, High Plains does not validly exist,” Lubbock’s legal filing read.

Continue reading Court showdown coming Friday for Lubbock, Panhandle power project

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

A former official involved with the Pedernales Electric Cooperative is on trial for felony theft, money laundering, and misapplication of fiduciary property. Prosecutors from the Texas Attorney General’s Office have spent the last two days conducting a painstaking review of billings and transactions between the co-op and its former law firm, Clark, Thomas & Winters.

Witnesses have included several former co-op and Clark Thomas employees. Several more current and former officials from those organizations, as well as people involved in the utility business, are on tap to testify later.

If you think that sounds like the December trial of ex-Pedernales general manager Bennie Fuelberg, you’re correct. And so far the approach prosecutors are taking in the trial of Walter Demond hasn’t been much different.

Visit Austin American-Statesman for the full article.

Albertans deserve to know how much they’ll pay and who will profit

Ted Morton, the Wildrose and the NDP actually agree about something.

Albertans stand to get hosed by transmission line costs.

That rare alignment came together Tuesday as all three weighed in on the perennially controversial megaplan to build new electrical transmission lines in Alberta.

Equally contentious is the law that removed the legal requirement for public hearings on such infrastructure projects and put the decision in the hands of the cabinet.

The government passed Bill 50 in 2009, citing a critical need to catch up on electrical transmission infrastructure, which hasn’t seen a major upgrade in 20 years.

The justification for circumventing much of the consultation process was that delaying the projects could lead to an unreliable electric system and paying extra for upgrades when construction and labour costs are again soaring.

Continue reading More static over power costs

Legislation Will Help Texans Save Money, Reduce Energy Use And Lower Emissions

(Austin, Texas – May 17, 2011) The Texas Senate concurred with the House amendments to Senate Bill 1125 by Sen. John Carona today.

The bill updates state energy efficiency programs by increasing and updating the goal for energy efficiency to 30 percent of load growth by 2013 for investor-owned utilities. It was sponsored by Rep. Rafael Anchia in the House and has enjoyed the support of environmental groups, consumers groups and utilities.

“This is great step toward engaging more Texans with energy efficiency programs, which will lower energy bills, decrease air emissions and create jobs in Texas,” said Kate Robertson, Energy Efficiency Specialist with Environmental Defense Fund.

The bill also opens up Texas utilities to engage with their customers in Demand Response programs whether they are municipal utilities, cooperatives or retail electric providers. Demand response is a customer driven market participation program where customers can receive payments from the marketplace for reducing their demand.

“Demand response means money for customers and savings for utilities all while reducing energy consumption and emissions,” said Colin Meehan, Clean Energy Analyst with Environmental Defense Fund.

Republished from the Environmental Defense Fund

Changes will be needed in the Texas electricity grid if it is to be able to keep pace with demand in the near future. The recent period of low electric rates experienced by Texas consumers and the poor economy have contributed to a situation where there is some concern about the state’s ability to keep up with future electricity demand.

The situation is made worse by looming EPA regulations which, according to ERCOT, will result in many of the states older gas burning power plants being shut down. Because Texas has deregulated its electricity market, power producers decide when, and if, to build power plants based on market conditions. The low electricity prices, along with the uncertain economic situation, have made it unprofitable and too risky for power producers to build new plants right now.

Read more: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/green/article/looming-epa-regulations-will-have-an/#ixzz1NCVkGodV

Several bills working their way through the legislative process are likely to send Texans’ utility bills up, consumer advocates say.

On Monday, the House approved a bill that would allow electric utilities to raise rates to pay for projects like building electric poles and wires — without first getting approval for those increases from state regulators, as is customary now. The Senate has already passed a slightly different version.

Similar legislation on the gas side is pending in both the House and Senate; it would streamline the rate-raising process for those utilities, which help heat Texas homes. A House bill that would make water rates easier to adjust has — so far — made little headway.

During the floor debate on Monday about electric rates, state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, tried to attach an amendment that would have limited the amount by which utilities could raise their rates under the new, expedited process. “Once the bill takes effect, your electricity bill is going to go up,” said Turner, arguing that his amendment would create a “reasonable cap.” But the House voted down his amendment.

Continue reading “Is the Texas legislature raising utility rates?“

Whoever coined the phrase “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” might also have included “utility bills” in that list of life’s painful inevitabilities. Nobody likes paying them. Whether it’s to light our homes, for heating or for water and wastewater service — utility bills can be expensive. That’s why it’s important that they’re also fair.

But a piece of legislation currently pending in Austin, Senate Bill 1309, could needlessly and unfairly inflate consumer payments to natural gas utilities. Although filed with the best of intentions, our analysis shows that this bill will encourage inefficient spending by gas utilities and make it easier for them to hike base rates.

What does the bill do? First, SB 1309 would give gas utilities new authority to pursue rate adjustments based upon isolated changes in their businesses. While this may seem innocuous, the actual effect would be to remove from consideration mitigating factors (such as offsetting savings) that could block a rate increase.

To continue to the full article, jump to the Houston Chronicle.

In addition to the usual rise in summer power bills as it takes more juice to keep cool, a rate increase by the company that delivers the electricity likely will add a little more.

The Public Utility Commission this week granted CenterPoint Energy a $14.7 million rate increase, which the utility estimates will add $1.32, or about 1 percent, to the monthly bill for customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month and paying 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The rates would go into effect in July unless opponents can get another hearing.

CenterPoint operates the poles and lines that transmit electricity to more than 2 million Houston-area customers, regardless of what retail company sells them their electricity. The regulated monopoly charges retailers for transmitting power, and the providers, which compete in a deregulated market, decide how much to pass along to customers.

CenterPoint’s charges usually amount to about 30 percent of a bill.

Full article – No shock here: Your electric bill’s going up

One way or another, your electric rates are going up.

The Legislature is working on a compromise bill that would allow providers to raise rates without a hearing with the Public Utility Commission.
KETK has talked with a co-sponsor of the bill in the House, and yes, it gives utility companies virtual carte blanche to raise your rates.

They call it streamlining the process.

Critics call it devastating.

The legislature has a lot on it’s plate. Budget deficits, redistricting and more have to be done this session.

But one bill has come as a bit of a surprise, and seems on the fast track to becoming law.

Read more Rate hike fast track

A typical residential customer would see a $1.60 increase in a monthly electric bill under a rate case settlement that Oncor Electric Delivery filed Wednesday with the Texas Public Utility Commission, which is expected to consider approval as early as May 26.

The increase is based on consumption of 1,300 kilowatt hours, Oncor spokeswoman Catherine Cuellar said.

Oncor previously estimated that the typical increase would be $2.35, but revised it to $1.60 after further calculations.

The rate hike would occur in two steps, on July 1 and Jan. 1.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/05/11/3068908/oncor-rate-case-settlement-to.html#ixzz1MWuALNp0

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) are combining their inquiries into the causes of rolling blackouts and natural gas delivery disruptions caused by cold weather in February in the Southwest.

FERC and NERC have been sharing information even as they conducted separate inquiries into the matter. With their combined efforts, both staffs will issue a joint report on the findings and recommendations and present them to FERC and to the NERC Board of Trustees.

Texas officials are looking into why the state’s electric grid, operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), couldn’t keep up with demand on Feb. 2 which led them to impose rolling blackouts as a winter storm hit the state. In testimony, the state utility regulator said plants across the state were not adequately prepared for the drop in temperatures and icy conditions. As many as 82 power generating units representing 11,000 MW tripped offline because of the cold weather.

FERC’s investigation seeks to identify the causes of the disruptions and identify any appropriate actions for preventing their reoccurrence. Texas regulators ordered an inquiry into the power outages, including whether market manipulation played a role in the outages and natural gas supplies. Findings released May 2 from Potomac Economics found no evidence of market manipulation or power abuse.

With some resistance from Dallas-area Republicans, the Texas House passed a bill that would let utility companies increase rates to pay for some capital projects without having to go through a slow and costly rate case.

The argument came down to who should be protected:
1) The utilities companies, which have to wait years for reimbursements on projects and face interest and attorney costs

or 2) the customers, who could see rate increases with little or no state oversight for years (and some argue decades) before regulators step in.

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, a longtime fighter for electricity customers, tried unsuccessfully to put a 10 percent cap (2.5 percent per year) on how much those utilities could raise the electricity bills for consumers per four-year cycle (because those rate case hearings would be mandatory after four annual rate adjustments, otherwise known as Periodic Rate Adjustments).

Turner argued that the consumers could end up paying elevated rates for years before the PUC can get around to deciding whether that new rate is actually fair – and he had bipartisan support from Republicans like Will Hartnett of Dallas, who said he couldn’t understand why the Legislature wouldn’t want to protect customers from skyrocketing rates with no regulation. Public Citizen and the AARP are both groups who are against the bill.

Read the full article Bill takes away another barrier to increasing electricity rates

Austin Energy has struck a deal satisfying a big customer that could have provided big headaches when the utility raises its rates next year.

The state government, Austin Energy’s third-largest customer, has agreed to a new contract that guarantees it will continue to pay rates well below what the utility charges most of the rest of its customers.

Continue reading State, Austin Energy strike electric rate deal

WACO – It’s called “Demand Ratchet” pricing, and some say it’s a loophole that allows power companies to gouge schools, churches and other organizations for profit.

Your electrical bill is divided in two parts, the cost of the energy and the cost of delivering it.

“Demand Ratchet” pricing means the rate for delivery is based on peak usage. The peak can occur in one 15-minute period, but up to 80 percent of the cost of delivery for those 15 minutes gets applied every month, all year.

Continue…

Electric Reliability Council of Texas day-ahead peak power prices jumped Friday in for-Monday trading on the IntercontinentalExchange as forecasts called for increasingly hotter weather over the weekend and into next week.

Day-ahead peak power packages jumped about 39% on average.

ERCOT Houston day-ahead peak power was trading around $60.50/MWh on ICE, a gain of about $18 on the Platts for-Friday index. ERCOT South day-ahead peak power was trading around $53/MWh, a gain of about $13.75. ERCOT North day-ahead peak was trading around $51/MWh, up about $14.25 on the index.

Prices have average about $40.25/MWh over the past month.

Article continues here.

From the FuelFix blog,

“That’s the question that lurks behind a bill currently winding its way through the Legislature. Sponsored by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, House Bill 3610 and its companion, Senate Bill 1693, would allow streamlined rate cases for the one piece of the Texas electricity market that hasn’t been deregulated – transmission.”

“Consumer groups warn that the bill will make it easier for utilities to hike rates, inflate their profits and bloat spending.

LeBlanc pointed to the contentious “true-up” case of 2004, which was tied up in litigation for years. That’s the sort of protracted legal battle CenterPoint would like to avoid in the future. No doubt, but that case also was about how utilities were going to foist onto consumers the cost of power plants built under regulation. It’s an example of exactly why we need contested rate cases.”

HOUSTON — Some electricity companies are charging big fees that customers probably don’t even know they’re paying.

Each time a family is disconnected, whether it’s because they got behind on a payment or because they moved to a new place, it costs to re-connect.

Bonifacio Martinez said he’s seen it happen to his friends over and over.

“And you call back and they’re still hitting you with another fee. What choice do you have but to pay the fee,” Martinez said.

Read the full article, Electricity companies have big fees hidden in small print.

From The Baltimore Sun,

“Exelon and Constellation’s opening offer for BGE customers is $100 per household — at a total cost of $110 million. Surely the PSC can raise that substantially. In 2008, to settle allegations that deregulation cheated electricity customers, BGE and Constellation rebated $170 to each BGE residence.”

Ennis’ teamwork with more than 140 other municipalities protesting a planned Oncor rate increase looks like it will lessen the blow of the requested boost.

The cities, which took issue with Oncor’s requested $353 million rate boost to residential, commercial and street lighting, filed in January to suspend the rate. That proposed increase reportedly would have boosted the average ratepayer’s bill by $5.

Public Utility Commission reauthorized. The Senate passed Senate Bill 661 to continue the Public Utility Commission. It is a bill that might not affect you, unless you happen to use water, telephones or electricity.

As the Senate author of the legislation, I wanted to make sure we keep a consumer focus in the bill.

I felt as if I were trapped in an electric version of Waiting for Godot.

Taking part in a panel discussion at a Gulf Coast Power Association conference last week, I was struck by how much of the discussion focused on the coming innovation that smart meters would bring to the deregulated electricity market.

We have, of course, been hearing promises of innovation for a decade now. They have yet to arrive.

While the benefits of deregulation may remain elusive for consumers, talking about the coming innovation has become a cottage industry. Just last week, the Chronicle ran an op/ed piece by Federico Peñ a, who served as secretary of energy and transportation during the Clinton administration. Peña was extolling the virtues of electric deregulation, and he began by comparing it with the choices he has in selecting air travel and cellphone service providers.

Back in late January Oncor told the Public Utility Commission it wanted to raise Dallas residents’ electricity bill by, oh, let’s say $4 to $5 a month. Even though there’d been a three-buck jump in your bill only two years ago. Said Oncor, look, it had no choice: People aren’t wasting electricity like they used to, the customer base isn’t growing like it ought to, and it’s investing, like, hundreds in infrastructure upgrades. (I kid?)

Texas’ Office of Public Utility Counsel recently assisted in a proposed settlement of an Oncor Electric Delivery rate case that would result in the company’s revenues increasing only about $136.7 million annually, instead of the $350 million annual …

Finally, there’s some good news for debt-riddled Energy Future Holdings, the Dallas-based parent of TXU Energy, Oncor Electric Delivery and Luminant.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded its rating outlook for EFH to stable, from a prior rating of negative, with approximately $37 billion of company debt affected.

University disputes $1 million of city electricity bills

The University of North Texas won the latest round in its legal fight with the city of Denton over more than $1 million in disputed electric bills.

The 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth reversed a district judge’s 2009 ruling that a state-mandated electric rate discount for public colleges and universities expired in September 2007. The city of Denton, which provides electric service to UNT, sued the university in an attempt to enforce the undiscounted rate.

A government minister and an opposition leader are engaged in a battle of one-upmanship over electricity rates.

NDP Leader Brian Mason on Thursday challenged Energy Minister Ron Liepert’s claim that electricity rates will go down in May.

He asked Liepert to resign from his cabinet seat if he’s wrong.

“Will he put his job on the line if power rates don’t come back down 62% next month, will he resign as minister of energy?” Mason said.

House Bill 1006 and Senate Bill 948, currently pending in the Texas Legislature, would require all competitive electricity providers to offer a standard one-year, fixed-rate package, easing the confusion often associated with hidden fees and charges felt by many Texas consumers in the deregulated electricity market.

Shopping for electricity in Texas can often be a confusing experience. Are there connection fees? Late fees? Transaction fees? What is my rate? Is it variable? How easily can I switch providers? Do I really know what I’m paying for each month?

The report from the Public Utility Commission of Texas is clear in its analysis of what went wrong:

“The winter freeze greatly strained the ability of the Texas electric utilities to provide reliable power to their customers. Record and near-record low temperatures were felt throughout the state resulting in a significantly increased demand for electrical power.

“At the same time that demand was increasing, weather-related equipment malfunctions were causing generating units to trip off the line.” As a result, it noted, the state suffered widespread rolling blackouts and “near loss of the entire ERCOT electric grid.”

Last year, when The Eagle pressed BTU for the salaries of its top executives, the paper was told again and again that the utility didn’t have to release the information because it was of a competitive nature.

Then-City Manager David Watkins tried to get that information as well as other financial records of the utility, and he, too, was denied. The Bryan City Council requested the information, and that request was rejected.

BTU executives and the council-appointed BTU board were adamant that release of the financial information would put the utility at a competitive disadvantage, even though it has a monopoly on providing electric power within its service area.

Residential electricity consumers would see a $2.35 increase in a typical monthly electric bill under a proposed settlement of a rate case filed by Oncor Electric Delivery, the major transmission and distribution company serving North Texas.

Oncor spokeswoman Catherine Cuellar told the Star-Telegram late Friday that the company “has an agreement in principle” with intervenors in the case, including the Steering Committee of Cities Served by Oncor, which includes more than 140 cities, among them Arlington, Fort Worth and other Tarrant County cities.

Under the settlement, Oncor’s annual revenue would increase by $136.7 million, Cuellar said.

Electric power line operator Oncor has reached a settlement with the cities it serves to raise the rates for delivering electricity by a total of $136.7 million a year.

That amounts to an average of about $2.35 a month for residential electricity customers using 1,300 kilowatt-hours of juice.

That’s less than half of what Oncor had proposed. When Oncor asked for higher rates in January, officials said the increase reflected higher investments in the electricity grid.

Anyone who understands anything about politics in Alberta understands there’s one issue above all others likely to make Albertans really angry at their provincial government: out-of-control utility rates.

So there is no way to interpret news stories about a 66-per-cent rate spike for electrical expected this month in the Edmonton area but as extremely bad news for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives at a sensitive moment in their party’s history.

Voters may not understand the details of the “deregulation” implemented when Ralph Klein was premier, or why it led to much higher prices — who does? But they sure as heck understand the impact.

A panel debates whether liberalized electricity markets work for people

Do electricity and a free market mix?

Legislators and policy analysts across the world are weighing in on that question. More than a dozen U.S. states have tried some form of deregulation and the concept has an even longer history in Europe. At the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Conference in New York City, two teams squared off in an Oxford-style debate about the premise that “This house believes that a fully liberalized power market is a bad deal for consumers.”

Back in February parts of Texoma experienced freezing temperatures and rolling blackouts. The loss of power was addressed Thursday by ONCOR.

The company held a presentation for officials with the Grayson County Emergency Management Team to better understand what happened two months ago.

According to ONCOR, two power stations went off line and in order to balance the system rolling blackouts were necessary. The energy company says the system worked the way it was supposed to and those who needed to be informed were.

The Senate Natural Resources Committee heard testimony this morning on a bill that would create a Texas Energy Policy Council charged with crafting an energy plan for the state.

Members of the council would include top officials from the Public Utility Commission, the Railroad Commission, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (the grid operator). It would plan Texas’ energy future over a 20-year period, including how to deal with federal environmental regulations.

Sen. Steve Ogden, the Bryan Republican who’s the Senate’s chief budget writer, said Thursday that money collected from a fee on electricity bills should possibly be used to draw down more federal matching money, perhaps in the state-federal Medicaid health insurance program for the poor, elderly and disabled.

The state budget passed by the House runs about $6 billion short of current funding, if you count loss of temporarily higher federal match money, recommended provider fee cuts and failure to add money for inflation and growth in use of services and enrollment. The budget shaping up in the Senate also shorts Medicaid, but not as much.

The House’s chief champion of giving poor, elderly and disabled Texans discounts on their utility bills is so frustrated, he wants to kill a surcharge funding the program and use all unspent money as a one-time fix for gaping holes in the state’s social services budget.

“The surcharge needs to be ended. You cannot redirect it … and be honest with the people who are paying,” Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, said Thursday.

Turner reacted coolly to Senate budget chief Steve Ogden’s suggestion earlier Thursday that the fee money could help pay for Texas’ Medicaid program, presumably on a continuing basis.

“Either you end it or you rename it and call it what it is — a utility tax,” said Turner, vice chairman of House Appropriations.

Frustrated lawmakers and consumer groups have complained for years that the power industry wields too much influence over the state’s electric grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

There’s good reason for that perspective. While it may sound like a regulatory agency, ERCOT is a private council led mostly by representatives affiliated with the state’s electricity industry. It controls a multimillion-dollar budget from fees built into consumer rates.

The Texas Senate has voted to require regulators to study whether the state’s power generators can handle severe weather.

Texas had rolling blackouts in February. Arctic weather sunk temperatures into single digits and knocked out more than 80 power stations.

Monday’s vote calls for the state Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to study emergency operations plans at power plants and report their findings to the Legislature in 2012.

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Energy Future Holdings Corp. is asking for concessions from creditors in exchange for upfront payments on its massive debt, as the beleaguered power generator looks to head off any escalation on a dispute over its treatment of a subsidiary.

The move follows an attack launched by activist hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management LP in February, which alleged that EFH was paying too little for money it has been borrowing from a subsidiary. It was an untimely accusation for EFH, which has been staging negotiations with its lenders to push upcoming debt payments further out into the further. EFH, formerly known as TXU, was taken private by KKR & Co. LP (KKR) and TPG Capital for $45 billion, the largest leveraged buyout ever.

In the days following the rolling electrical blackouts that hit Texas in the first week of February, the organization that manages most of the state’s power grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, announced that about 80 power generation plants had crashed because of the weather.

A couple of weeks later, ERCOT expanded the list: 120 power generating units across the state had shut down between Feb. 1 and Feb. 4.

The final list of generation units that experienced a forced outage during last month’s severe weather event, Feb. 1- 4, has been posted today on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) website in the News/Reports/Emergency Response section at this link.

A Texas electric utilities group wants the Legislature to let power companies charge customers for equipment improvements without first having to prove the need for the increase in their utility bills in a formal rate case.

The question of whether customers will be protected from unreasonable upward bumps in their bills remains unanswered.

Coast to coast, from Maine to Marin County, Calif., the number of homes being outfitted with smart meters that keep a close eye on homeowner electricity use is on the rise. And so is the number of folks who think smart meters are a dumb idea.

The strategist behind Energy Future Holdings’ coal plant buildout said Thursday that it doesn’t make sense to build any power plants right now.

Jonathan Siegler, chief financial officer for Bluescape Resources, said the cost to build any type of new power generation — coal, nuclear, solar, wind or natural gas — is higher than the current price of power.

“The signals are that it’s not time to build,” Siegler said at a conference organized by the University of Texas’ Energy Management and Innovation Center. Siegler was the top strategist for TXU Corp. before it was purchased by private investors and became Energy Future Holdings.

The nuclear power disaster in Japan focused new public attention on Luminant’s Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Glen Rose, but hasn’t affected Luminant’s operations, a spokesman said.

The two reactors at Comanche Peak, about 50 miles southwest of Forth Worth, started generating power in the early 1990s. In 2008, Luminant started an ongoing application process to potentially build two more reactors.

The city of El Paso should “seriously consider” taking over El Paso Electric, said city Rep. Ann Morgan Lilly, the incumbent for District 1 in the May 14 municipal elections.

In a meeting with the El Paso Times editorial board Wednesday, Lilly said she was dissatisfied with the utility’s performance, calling it “out of touch” with the community it serves.

ERCOT — Frustrated lawmakers and consumer groups insist the Texas power industry wields too much influence on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Lawmakers must seize the opportunity this session to reform the grid operator and give consumers a more influential voice in electricity policy and management. Jim writing on behalf of the board.

Frustrated lawmakers and consumer groups have complained for years that the power industry wields too much influence over the state’s electric grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

There’s good reason for that perspective. While it may sound like a regulatory agency, ERCOT is a private council led mostly by representatives affiliated with the state’s electricity industry. It controls a multimillion-dollar budget from fees built into consumer rates.

Last week I reported on a single Valley retail electric company that got hit with a giant bill because of spot-market prices for power that spiked during the February 2 rolling blackouts. Monday, the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the quasi-government entity that manages most of the state’s grid, released figures that show the enormous cost of the event generally to buyers of power — and, no doubt in some cases, eventually to retail customers.

The utility gets state approval to initiate a tiered rate structure for residential customers

Hawaiian Electric Co. has introduced a tiered rate structure for its residential customers on Oahu that increases the cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour as usage goes up.

The new system brings Oahu into line with what HECO launched in January at its subsidiaries on Maui, the Big Island, Molokai and Lanai.

HECO said the changes on Oahu that went into effect yesterday coincide with a decision by the state Public Utilities Commission last Friday to implement the final pieces of a 2009 rate hike sought by the utility.

Poor families and elderly people would be more vulnerable to freezing to death if a legislative proposal allowing Iowa’s electric utilities to use prepaid meters is approved, according to advocates for the state’s poor.

House Study Bill 158 would allow for the metering systems and allow companies to grant automatic termination once the customer’s prepaid limit has been reached.

NRG Energy Inc. has slowed down work on new nuclear power reactors in Texas because the Japanese plant explosions have created uncertainty about regulations and investment.

The company will continue to work on getting licenses and federal loan guarantees to build two reactors at the South Texas Project…

The Texas Supreme Court has granted CenterPoint Energy’s request to recover what may be more than $2 billion in deregulation costs, which could mean another $3 per month on customer electric bills over the next 15 years.

The decision relates to funds CenterPoint is allowed to recoup from ratepayers under electricity deregulation.

It’s time for you to pick an electricity provider. You go to the state’s Power to Choose website to compare offers, but you quickly discover that presentations differ so much that comparison shopping is hopeless.

That’s both the beauty and the curse of electricity competition in Texas. The system is intended to allow electricity providers to pitch their service plans in such a way that consumers can pick one that fits their lifestyle and budget. But the complexity of plans sometimes prevents customers from easy access to needed information presented in usable ways.

It will be several more weeks before the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) releases a report by an independent market monitor that could show who made and lost money during last month’s rolling blackouts. But some of the electric bills related to the February 2 event have arrived, and there are some unhappy customers.

“Testimony at the Terry Jones appeal hearing portrayed Denton Municipal Electric as a workplace flawed by cronyism and deception, where people can be hired if they know the boss and fired if they’re not a “good fit.”

“As federal regulators look into the causes of the Texas electricity blackouts, they will use the inquiry to think about how to ensure that a new fleet of natural gas plants around the country can get plenty of fuel.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said at the CERA Week conference that he wants to know the reasons for the Texas power generation outages and for interruptions in natural gas delivery to New Mexico.”

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said at the CERA Week conference Thursday he wants to know the reasons for the Texas power generation outages and for the interruptions in natural gas delivery to New Mexico.

“I want to use this as a platform to look at how gas delivery may change, and needs to change, as we have more gas generation in this country,” Wellinghoff told reporters during the conference, organized by energy analysis firm IHS CERA.

“The cost to protect Energy Future Holdings Corp. debt climbed on speculation over the outcome of hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management LP’s assertion that the power company is in default on a $23.9 billion loan. “

“The private equity Masters of the Universe are in a royal jam in Texas.
It seems that Texas Pacific Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts have jammed so much debt down the gullet of a Texas utility, the company is having difficulty making its bond payments. Texas Pacific and KKR bought TXU Corp. for $45 billion.
Typically, they used little of their own money. Since they did the deal, TXU’s debt has gone from $11 billion to $36 billion, $22.5 billion of which matures by 2014.”

“Attention College Station Utilities customers: The extra $5 fee on your March utility bill is not a mistake.

And you can expect to see it again in April, May, June, November and December — the lower usage months of the year.

David Massey, director of electric utilities for CSU, said the fee is being added to offset costs endured on Feb. 2, when Electric Reliability Council of Texas mandated utility companies impose temporary blackouts.”

“College Station Utilities customers will soon receive letters and other notification regarding a temporary increase in their electric bills to offset costs incurred during the statewide rolling brownouts in early February.”

“Bills in both the Texas House and Senate would allow competition for electricity in Austin, but city officials have deemed the proposed laws unfair.

The proposals come as Austin Energy, a city-owned utility with approximately 400,000 customers, announced its first significant electric rate increase in 17 years. The increase is expected to be as much as 12 percent by 2012 and 35 percent by 2020.”

“State lawmakers have filed legislation that would end Austin Energy’s state-sanctioned monopoly.

Companion bills in the state House and Senate would allow competing electric providers to operate within Austin Energy’s service area, enabling them to potentially lure away some of the city-owned utility’s roughly 400,000 customers.”

“A new report indicates that in the parts of Texas where consumers have an option to pick their power suppliers, those ratepayers are actually paying more for electricity. It has been a decade since state legislators passed a measure that opened most of the state’s power market to competition. This new report, from the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power, shows that while those with power choices end up paying more, markets like San Antonio and Austin (an New Braunfels) , where consumers do not have that option, are paying less on their monthly utility bills.”

“The Texas Coalition for Affordable Power released a report Friday that shows that in regions of the state were consumers have the right to choose their power suppliers, those ratepayers are paying more for electricity, while markets like San Antonio and Austin where that option is not available, they are paying less.”

“Electricity customer bill of rights, annuity protection and payday and auto-title loan reform are state legislative issues for which AARP will fight.

Something needs to be done about giving consumers more informed choices on electricity providers. Consumers are given choices, but do we really know what they mean? We have more than 40 retail electric providers (REPs) offering more than 140 different plans. How is the consumer supposed to sort through these plans and decide what is best? Just today I received an e-mail from an electric company that gives away points that can be used toward vacations. How does this company compare to the one I now use and have used for many years? More information would be helpful.”

“Texas electricity consumers have seen costs rise after the state moved to a deregulated power market a decade earlier, signaling that regulators and lawmakers need to step in to improve rules, according to a study.

The southern state passed a law in 2002 to replace regulated electricity rates with a competitive power market in an effort to reduce prices. Consumers can choose where they purchase their power from rather than relying on a single utility. But after this transformation, electricity prices across most of the …”

“Before our state’s recent experience with rolling blackouts, little public attention was paid to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. But with an unprecedented number of people losing power Feb. 2, this nonprofit company charged with monitoring, operating and controlling the state’s electricity grid has found itself the subject of glaring attention from public and politicians alike. We are all asking: Did ERCOT prepare responsibly and do its job during the electricity crisis?”

“For the Texas power industry, this has been a time of soul-searching angst. Three weeks ago, dozens of the state’s power generators failed in frigid weather, causing the worst blackouts in years and prompting multiple investigations. State lawmakers are demanding to know what went wrong.”

“The rolling blackouts have, hopefully, gone, but they have left questions about the reliability of our power grid and the accountability for overseeing it.

Several state agencies administer different aspects of the deregulated market in a tangled array of jurisdictions and rules that resembles the nest of cords behind my computer table.”

“Two groups of municipal utilities in Texas, long critical of electric power deregulation in Texas and ERCOT in particular, have joined forces to issue a report, “The story of ERCOT: The grid operator, power market & prices under Texas electric deregulation.” The municipals describe the report as examining “governance issues related to ERCOT as an organization as well as deregulation issues related to ERCOT as a region.” In general, they assert that ERCOT has been costly, has suffered some significant episodes of mismanagement, the market hasn’t been as competitive as needed, and that power prices have been too high in the ERCOT region as a result.”

“The Arctic blast two weeks ago that led to statewide rolling blackouts is still fresh on the mind of local Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Houston. On Feb. 16, she was part of a House investigation on electric utility failures that caused the blackouts, and she also has a pivotal voice on the State Affairs Committee, which could expand, condense, deconstruct or scrap energy regulation policy in Texas.”

“Energy Future Holdings Corp.’s fourth-quarter profit rose 18% as the company restructured more of its massive debt load.

“We still face many future challenges but will remain focused on safety, operational excellence, customer care and financial while we continue to improve our balance sheet,” Chief Executive John F. Young said during a conference call.”

“Just how secret are the inner workings of the Texas electric power industry? Even the state’s main grid operator, which coordinates how power plants operate, isn’t privy to the details of how they prepare for severe weather.”

“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas yanked its formal request that the Public Utility Commission hand over documents about power plant winterization.”

“At the Texas grid operator’s Austin headquarters on Monday afternoon, about 100 people crowded into a special board meeting to hear the grid’s chief executive, Trip Doggett, discuss the events that led to the rolling blackouts across Texas on Feb. 2.”

“As Texans without power shivered through one of the worst cold snaps in years this month, the icicles of blame pointed in a number of directions. Temperatures plummeted, ice and snow fell, and the state’s power grid lost 7,000 megawatts of capacity, forcing waves of controlled blackouts statewide.”

“More than 7,700 customers of a Dallas-based retail electric company will be transferred to other companies following the company’s failure to meet its financial obligations to the state’s main grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.”

“In response to the rolling blackouts of Feb. 2, members of the Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Thursday accused the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) of ignoring dire energy forecasts, failing to communicate with other important decision makers, and “understating the risk” of rolling blackouts.”

“It is tough to find out details on last week’s blackouts, and the system is apparently set up to make it tough.
In fact, the 82 power generating plants that went down last week is a number we apparently have to take on faith.
Because, those are the rules.”

“At least two investigations will examine whether it was extreme weather and high demand — or perhaps power companies’ greed — that led to last week’s rolling blackouts across Texas.

Within a few hours, the price electricity generators charged briefly skyrocketed on Feb. 2 from $50 per MW to $3,000 — the highest legally allowed.”

“In a satellite interview with News 8 on Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry said he is still trying to get a definitive answer about the cause of last week’s rolling blackouts in Texas.

“I’m not ready to point fingers, but we hear anecdotally that the weatherization wasn’t done; that there was some generation issues that were created,” he said. “Our job is to really delve into this. I know the legislature is going to be having some hearings. We’re asking the right questions at the PUC and through the Electrical Reliability Council.”

“On the eve of another potentially bad winter storm, state officials are wondering what they can do to prevent another electric disaster.

Dozens of power plants had to shut down last week when they lost the natural gas they use to produce electricity. On Tuesday, the Texas Railroad Commission heard that the brownouts may have happened because power companies tried to save money by buying cheap gas.”

“What private-equity honchos once received from initial public offerings: instant cash, heady gains and quick exits from their investments.

What they likely will get from a coming surge of IPOs: muted initial gains, help reducing staggering debt loads and hope of finally handing some cash back to investors.”

“Vinayak Gowrish, a former associate at the private-equity firm TPG Capital LP, tipped a close friend about pending acquisitions in exchange for cash, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney told a federal jury.”

Coal-burning utilities helping UT researchers in quest for cleaner coal.

“In a four-story test plant just behind a warehouse-like research building in North Austin, University of Texas researchers are hoping for a revolutionary breakthrough to the question of how to continue to burn coal without contributing to global warming.”

“Another top Texas official has weighed in against the Environmental Protection Agency. During a meeting today of the Public Utility Commission, chairman Barry Smitherman, in a brief digression from the agenda, said that the federal agency was attempting to “disarm the U.S. economy,” with a raft of rules covering everything from fly-ash waste from coal plants to greenhouse gases.”

“Texas is in the midst of a wind-power boom, and at the heart of it lies a conundrum: While plenty of ranchers are eager to host wind turbines, few want the unsightly high-voltage transmission lines needed to carry the power to distant cities running through their property.”

“According to the Texas Energy Report, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told reporters last week he’s considering incentives to get power companies to either upgrade or replace old coal plants with natural gas.

Thirteen coal-fired power plants in Texas were built before 1980. Shut those down without immediately replacing the full capacity, and the lights go out.”