Breaking down a record-setting day on the Texas grid
Record-breaking electricity demand on the Texas ERCOT grid is exposing both the promise and the growing pains of a rapidly changing power system dominated by wind, solar, batteries, and complex pricing. Commenters highlight problems with poorly designed demand-response programs (like “rush hour” smart thermostats), the economics and reliability implications of crypto mining and large data centers, and the difficulty of fairly compensating consumers for curtailment. They also debate the role of rooftop solar, home batteries, and potential interconnections to other US grids, weighing local control and regulatory politics against resilience and cost efficiency.
Demand Response & Smart Thermostats
- Several users report “rush hour” thermostat events aligning with gross load peak, then releasing at net load peak, causing a usage spike when prices are highest.
- Some feel these programs may cost them more than doing nothing, especially on flat-rate tariffs.
- Complaints about difficulty unenrolling and opaque processes; some resorted to password changes, device resets, or replacing thermostats.
- Concerns about utilities’ cloud access to EVs/thermostats and over-polling vehicles, causing 12V battery issues.
- Others argue demand response should reduce net peak load and that participants should not pay more than non-participants; if they do, something is misdesigned.
Utility-Scale Batteries and ERCOT Operations
- Texas now has substantial utility-scale storage, with record battery discharge measured in MW (power), not total MWh.
- ERCOT drew ~2,000 MW from its Contingency Reserve (ECRS) and relied heavily on batteries instead of slower-start resources.
- Batteries are praised for frequency/voltage support and evening price control, but capacity is still too small to absorb frequent wind oversupply; curtailment remains normal and efficient.
Grid Tightness and Conservation
- Discussion around a day with ~85 GW load and only 130 MW of “SCED within 5 minutes” capacity left.
- Clarification that ~4 GW of additional capacity existed outside SCED but likely at higher cost.
- Some users note fewer conservation alerts this year; others describe frequent thermostat-based “Rush Hour” events from local utilities.
Crypto Mining, Data Centers, and Load Growth
- Bitcoin miners and data centers in Texas participate as flexible load, sometimes earning more from curtailment payments than from operations.
- Local complaints include noise, limited jobs, tax breaks, and potentially higher retail power prices.
- One side calls bitcoin an energy-wasting “game”; another claims it’s economically and socially vital, more important than air conditioning or even the internet.
Home Batteries and Free-Night Arbitrage
- Users ask about charging home batteries on “free nights” and discharging by day.
- Consensus: current turnkey home batteries (e.g., Powerwall) usually don’t pay off purely for arbitrage once cost and degradation are included.
- Debate over degradation severity and warranty periods; DIY LFP cell systems can be much cheaper per kWh but require expertise.
- EV vehicle-to-grid is mentioned as an emerging alternative.
Texas Renewables and Rooftop Solar
- Some argue Texas “should” be covered in rooftop solar but lacks strong state policy; others counter that incentives exist and many neighborhoods already have significant solar.
- Local co-ops may offer unfavorable buyback rates, with accusations of “regressive” changes motivated by lost kWh sales rather than grid costs.
- Distributed solar’s value and how much to pay for exports (retail vs market rates) is debated.
Grid Interconnection and Market Design
- Commenters note that while Texas burns gas, nearby regions sometimes have negative prices from wind oversupply that could be imported/exported with better interconnection.
- Resistance to connecting ERCOT to other US grids is tied to avoiding federal regulation and preserving local control.
- Some stress that isolation already contributed to deadly failures (e.g., winter storm), arguing for at least emergency interties.
- Others warn that broader interconnection can propagate failures and that gas plants have nontrivial start/stop costs, complicating simple “just import cheap power” narratives.