The Texas Public Utilities Commission held a meeting to discuss the reorganization of the electricity market

Austin, Texas – The Texas Public Utilities Commission is expected to soon vote on a redesign of the marketplace, which was being worked on after the 2021 winter storm.

The goal is to make sure the power system is holding up and reliable.

The PUC chairman said the purpose of Thursday’s meeting was for commissioners to ask questions of consultants tasked with offering market redesign options.

The chairman said the commission had received more than 1,000 pages of comments from the public, who want the reliability of the network but are also concerned about cost.

“The main goal of today is to discuss market design,” said PUC Chairman Peter Lake.

During the Austin Marathon on Thursday, the Public Utilities Commission considered options to reorganize the state’s energy market to prevent a repeat of the February 2021 hurricane and power outages that killed more than 200 Texans.

“To analyze how we think the market will perform under each of these market patterns,” explained Zak Meig, Director of Resource Planning at E3.

Dr. Joshua Rhodes is a UT Austin Fellow.

“There have been many proposals to the Public Utilities Commission on how we could change the electricity market,” he said.

Rhodes said the leader is something called the Performance Credit Facility, or PCM.

“Essentially, these are loans or additional money for power plants that are available during the most difficult hours of the year,” he explained. “So the idea is that giving additional incentives to certain power plants that are available at this time will mean that we will have more power plants that will be available at that time.”

But at what cost to consumers?

Some energy advocates say electricity bills could rise by nearly 15% this year.

One reason is fluctuations in natural gas prices, which are currently falling sharply but are subject to price spikes in the future.

Rhodes said that any changes in the market would cost money.

“We just need to make sure we get the reliability associated with this price,” he said.

CONNECTED: The state agency that oversees the Texas power grid needs more money to do its job, according to the Sunset Commission.

At Thursday’s meeting, ERCTO’s vice president of operations said the reforms already implemented under SB3 are working.

The power plants were weatherproof and generally worked well during winter sleep at Christmas.

“At no time during cold weather operations did ERCOT need to declare an emergency or even get close enough to issue an alert or monitor cargo reserves,” said Dan Woodfin.

It is worth noting that ERCOT grossly underestimated electricity demand during the last major freeze, and the agency acknowledged that it needs more generating capacity to keep up with growth.

The PUC Chairman said it was vital to redesign the market.

“Time is of the essence. Our staff is growing, people depend on how reliable our network will be, ”said Lake.

On Thursday, no official action was taken.

Lake said the commission could vote on the market reorganization plan at its next meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 19.

But Dr. Rhodes said he wouldn’t be surprised if that vote was pushed back, as state lawmakers might want to weigh in first.