AUSTIN State Rep. Brooks Landgraf and Sen. Kevin Sparks say beefing up the Texas power grid is a top priority of the 88th Legislature and they say a package of bills has been introduced to avoid a repetition of Winter Storm Uri, which cost $295 billion, left 4 1/2 million Texas homes and businesses without power and killed 200 people in February 2021.
While 2021 legislation addressed problems like winterizing power plants and other issues, Landgraf and Sparks say further action must be taken.
“I’ve proposed House Bill 4429 to address the main problem head on: the need for dispatchable, reliable natural gas-fueled electricity,” said Landgraf, chairman of the House Environmental Regulation Committee. “Upon passage, this bill would clear the way for a project in West Texas that would generate 1,350 megawatts of natural gas-fueled electricity, enough to power nearly 1.5 million Texas homes.”
The Odessa Republican said Corpus Christi Republican Rep. Todd Hunter’s HB 4835 and House Joint Resolution 180 “are also working through the legislative process this session with the aim of improving our grid.
“HB 4835 and HJR 180 will establish the Texas Energy Reliability Fund for new dispatchable generation construction,” Landgraf said. “By creating this fund, the legislature will balance the playing field for dispatchable generation development and send a clear message that new generation is critical to provide the necessary megawatts for the security and reliability of the grid.”
Sparks said lawmakers “are unfortunately trying to overcome decades of federal subsidies for intermittent or unreliable power, which has distorted the energy market for years and has created an imbalance between intermittent and readily dispatchable power.
“With this in mind, more work is needed on grid reliability in Texas, but Senate Bills 6 and 7 attempt to address the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ recurring reliability issues by incentivizing this dispatchable or ‘on demand’ power generation,” said Sparks, a Midland Republican who is a member of the Senate Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee.
“This type of immediate dispatchable power is essential to stabilizing the grid. Doing nothing is not an option. SB 6 and SB 7 move us in the right direction.”
Those bills were filed by Republican Sens. Charles Schwertner of Georgetown and Phil King of Weatherford.
