{"id":32078,"date":"2013-10-25T17:15:20","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T22:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=32078"},"modified":"2013-10-26T18:08:39","modified_gmt":"2013-10-26T23:08:39","slug":"regulators-get-feisty-over-texas-power-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/10\/25\/regulators-get-feisty-over-texas-power-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"Debate Gets Feisty Between Regulators Over Texas&#8217; Power Supply"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_24750\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 148px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24750\" alt=\"Donna Nelson, chairperson of the Texas PUC, moved the commission a step closer today to a capacity market. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/02\/nelson_no_border.jpg\" width=\"148\" height=\"200\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy Texas PUC<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donna Nelson, chairperson of the Texas PUC, moved the commission a step closer today to a capacity market.<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>Public Utility Commission Signals Move to Increase Reliability, Which Could Raise Prices; Anderson Calls Idea &#8220;Corporate Welfare&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p>Meetings of the Texas Public Utility Commission are not a place you go to see fireworks. They usually deal with phone companies, transmission lines, and power generation. But it\u2019s on that last subject where the conversation got a little <em>spicy<\/em> today.<\/p>\n<p>The chairperson of the commission, Donna Nelson, unexpectedly brought up a proposal that could have wide implications for the deregulated power market in Texas, and could also raise power bills for consumers. Nelson wanted to move the state&#8217;s reserve margin &#8212; the amount of extra power available at times of peak demand &#8212; from its current state of a goal to something that is mandatory. Commissioner Ken Anderson was taken aback.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would\u2019ve liked some advance notice, even a memo the day before,&#8221; Anderson said. &#8220;Saying, I plan to bring this up. Cause this is big.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Commissioner Anderson,&#8221; Nelson interrupted, &#8220;you have handed memos to me at 8 o&#8217;clock in the morning as I walk in, right before an open meeting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not on something this big!&#8221; Anderson retorted.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0two\u00a0commissioners\u00a0have been deadlocked for over a year on this issue.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/117068373\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At the center of the debate is an idea that would pay power generators in Texas not just for the electricity they produce, but also just for being around. It&#8217;s known as a capacity market. There\u2019s a lot of nitty gritty here, but it boils down to one question: Will the state of Texas have enough power for its growing population and potentially hotter summers?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10990\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 148px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10990\" alt=\"Texas PUC commissioner Kenneth Anderson \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/05\/Kenneth-Anderson.jpg\" width=\"148\" height=\"200\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Texas PUC<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Texas PUC commissioner Kenneth Anderson<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Texas&#8217; current deregulated market is energy-only, meaning power plant owners are only paid for the power they produce. With lower fuel prices (in part thanks to fracking), power companies argue they&#8217;re not making enough money to build new plants to keep up with demand.\u00a0\u00a0The power companies argue that\u00a0paying power plants just for being available will help increase the power supply. Today&#8217;s meeting showed that there&#8217;s a majority on the commission now (Nelson and new appointee <a style=\"font-size: 14px;\" href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.tx.us\/news\/appointment\/18828\/\">Brandy Marty<\/a>, a former aide to Governor Rick Perry) willing to move forward with exploring such an idea.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson was the lone voice on the commission saying it\u2019s too soon for such a move, even to mandate a\u00a0minimum\u00a0buffer between supply and demand. He worries a capacity market could end up charging every day Texans more on their power bills while handing even more profits to power plants. &#8220;Why?&#8221; Anderson said. &#8220;Because they want that corporate welfare payment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It has always been, and will always be, my goal as chairman of the commission, to do the right thing for the people of Texas, both from a reliability standard and a cost standard,&#8221; Nelson said today.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson has argued that forecasts of\u00a0electricity\u00a0demand have proven wrong &#8212; even though Texas&#8217; population is growing, the state <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/09\/05\/texans-use-less-power-than-expected-baffling-state-regulators\/\">isn&#8217;t using as much power as expected<\/a>. He called for waiting until new reports come out this winter that will shed more light on how much power the state needs before moving to a mandated reserve margin, which could likely lead to a capacity market.<\/p>\n<p>Both conservative and consumer groups are against the idea of a capacity market.\u00a0 Some have called the idea \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/09\/05\/texans-use-less-power-than-expected-baffling-state-regulators\/\">Obamacare for electricity<\/a>.&#8221; The conservative <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texaspolicy.com\/\">Texas Public Policy Foundation<\/a> has said that the idea could put consumers on the hook for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texaspolicy.com\/center\/economic-freedom\/reports\/there-and-back-again-high-transition-costs-electricity-regulation\">billions of dollars<\/a>. And the consumer group <a href=\"http:\/\/tcaptx.com\/\">Texas Coalition for Affordable Power<\/a>\u00a0labeled today&#8217;s move &#8220;premature.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mandating a reserve margin is the first step toward creating a capacity market that would increase electricity costs by billions of dollars,&#8221; \u00a0Dr. Randy Moravec, executive director of the group, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just note for the record &#8212; I\u2019m unalterably opposed to it. It&#8217;s totally uneconomic. It&#8217;s the first step on a slippery, very slippery slope that has the potential to destroy the economic engine that is Texas,&#8221; Anderson said at the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It could lead to a huge tax on\u00a0consumers\u00a0that will not ensure reliability,&#8221; Anderson added. &#8220;So if we end up going down that road, and adopting some ridiculous construct that is hugely expensive &#8230; I want it clear that folks know who to call to complain about why they paid this tax for so many years and still have blackouts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It will likely take several more months, if not much of next year, to work out the details. But by a two to one margin today (Nelson and Marty in favor, Anderson against), the commission signaled that it could pursue a capacity market as the path for more reliable power supplies in Texas. And that could end up costing all of us more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public Utility Commission Signals Move to Increase Reliability, Which Could Raise Prices; Anderson Calls Idea &#8220;Corporate Welfare&#8221; Meetings of the Texas Public Utility Commission are not a place you go to see fireworks. They usually deal with phone companies, transmission lines, and power generation. But it\u2019s on that last subject where the conversation got a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[14,41],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32078"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32098,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32078\/revisions\/32098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}