The Decker Creek Power Station, a natural gas power plant northeast of Austin. The Public Utility Commission has voted to change how the state’s electricity market functions in an effort to make the power grid more reliable., The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The credits are designed to give power generators an added income stream and make building new power plants worthwhile. But companies that generate power support the plan because they say the credits will give them a reason to build new, needed power generation facilities to meet demand in a growing state. Gov.PUC Chair Peter Lake, whom Abbott appointed, pushed it forward Thursday.
Changes have already been made: To spur plants to start producing more power earlier when demand versus supply looks tight, the PUC told grid operators to move up the trigger for when they can increase the price for electricity — which gives producers a financial incentive to meet that demand. Experts disagree on whether the performance credits will actually convince power companies to build more natural gas plants, which are dirtier than wind and solar energy but can be turned on at any time. Some say new plants will be built anyway. Others say companies can simply use the credits to make more money from their existing plants without building more.
seems like an extra step to just charge consumers more.