New Gas Storage Facility Arrives Just In Time For The Texas Grid

As a major sub-freezing arctic weather system makes its way down to Texas in the coming days, concerns are rising again about the ability of the state’s power grid, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and natural gas delivery systems to handle the load. But with many citizens worried about the ability of ERCOT to avoid blackouts as forecasts predict the entire state to see sub-freezing temperatures for several days next week, CEO Pablo Vegas said generation capacity won’t be a problem.

[Note: This piece is also published at Forbes.]

“The power is not going to go out because we don't have enough supply to meet demand for this week. We've got plenty of power for the demand and for the cold weather that's coming. So, the grid's gonna be running stably,” Vegas told Dallas/Fort Worth ABC affiliate WFAA Tuesday.

While local service interruptions such as downed power lines are always a possibility during major weather events, Vegas’s high level of confidence stems from grid reforms implemented in the wake of 2021’s deadly Winter Storm Uri, and from the large amount of generation capacity that has been added to the grid since that time.

New Gas Storage Arrives Just In Time

Most of that added capacity is intermittent, weather dependent solar power, a small percentage of which is backed up with stationary batteries, which will help keep homes heated during daylight hours. But additional natural gas baseload generation has also come online in recent years, and weatherization and other improvements mandated by the legislature and regulators should serve to prevent the kinds of system freeze-ups that took place during Uri.