{"id":402586,"date":"2026-08-10T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T13:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/402586\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T13:54:15","slug":"as-batteries-dominate-in-texas-republicans-consider-natural-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/402586\/","title":{"rendered":"As batteries dominate in Texas, Republicans consider natural gas"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News<\/a>, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As new electricity generation skews toward solar and battery storage in Texas, Republican state senators are questioning whether it\u2019s time to impose minimum standards for building gas plants and move away from free trade in the state\u2019s electricity marketplace.<\/p>\n

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state\u2019s grid operator, reported last week that 70% of generation in the 460-gigawatt interconnection queue is from solar and battery storage. Natural gas facilities make up less than 17% of that line. And while it\u2019s an uptick from three years ago, when there were fewer than 10 gigawatts of gas power plants seeking to connect, legislators and grid leaders say going forward the current level of planned gas facilities won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford, asked the leaders of ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) at a public hearing last week whether there should be a rule that puts a quota on what share of new generation connecting to the grid comes from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould we say that from a point of interconnection that 50% \u2014 or some percentage of new generation\u2014has to be dispatchable generation as opposed to just letting the market forces guide that,\u201d King asked, referring to gas plants as \u201cdispatchable\u201d because they can be ramped up or down on demand, unlike intermittent wind and solar power sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a pretty significant policy change to have a requirement like that,\u201d ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas replied at a Senate Committee on Business and Commerce public hearing.<\/p>\n

But both Vegas and PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson said there needs to be a way to provide long-term incentives for gas to get built in Texas.<\/p>\n

Unlike other grid systems, power plants interconnected with ERCOT get paid for energy they actually deliver, not solely for having energy capacity available. The grid\u2019s market design dispatches the lowest cost resources, or the power plants with the least fuel costs, Vegas said. As solar and wind have zero fuel costs, they supply as much of the state\u2019s energy demand as they can provide.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left is then served by the next highest cost, Vegas said, starting at the gas plants connected onto the grid and then the 15 coal plants across the state. The proliferation of solar, storage and wind onto the grid has reduced the number of hours gas plants need to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we didn\u2019t build a new megawatt of renewables in this state for the next 10 years, we have the largest fleet of renewables in the U.S.,\u201d Vegas said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to continue to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to change the market to more widely incentivize the growth of gas and coal plants, Vegas said, ERCOT and the PUC would have to give those fuel-burning facilities a way to consistently make money to justify the billions of dollars required to cover the cost of investment and keep the plants running for the next few decades.<\/p>\n

While the number of proposed gas plants has increased in recent years, especially as data centers and other energy-intensive industries build their own fuel-burning generation capacity, Vegas said Texas will need a balanced mix of resources to serve the state\u2019s growing electricity demands.<\/p>\n

Vegas said that well over 90% of the energy resources that have come onto the grid are renewables and batteries. If that continues while load grows rapidly, the state could see more scarcity events.<\/p>\n

On July 22, when demand exceeded 91 gigawatts, there was more than 20 gigawatts of capacity still available.<\/p>\n

But the ease with which ERCOT handled that and another record-breaking demand day after temperatures soared statewide last month would be gone in two to three years, Vegas said, if only renewables continue to dominate additions to the grid. While renewables have remade the grid, ERCOT still heavily relies on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

As the state\u2019s electricity demands continue to grow, so do the demands on the state\u2019s gas and coal plants\u2014especially once the sun has gone down. Around 9 p.m. on the record-breaking demand day last month, the total load was almost 85 gigawatts, Vegas said. But because solar was no longer available, the fuel-burning facilities generated 75 megawatts, or close to 90% of demand.<\/p>\n

Bill Barnes, the senior director of regulatory affairs at NRG Energy, a natural gas power producer, said ERCOT\u2019s market structure as is, influenced by outside factors such as the previous administration\u2019s renewable energy tax credits, struggles to incentivize natural gas power plant operators to build.<\/p>\n

While consumers benefited from low prices during the recent heatwave, Barnes said, the low prices told power producers that there\u2019s excess supply on the grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor an investor in a dispatchable thermal plant, that\u2019s a retirement signal,\u201d Barnes said of the energy prices during record demand peaks.<\/p>\n

Barnes said the challenge is that while ERCOT\u2019s wholesale market indicates it\u2019s oversupplied, the situation could be very different in three years, as more large loads connect onto the grid<\/p>\n

There could even be a winter scenario, Barnes said. There\u2019s already an established dance, he said, for managing Texas\u2019 electricity demands during the summer: Solar ramps up, it ramps down, batteries come on, batteries ramp down, then natural gas and coal come up, Barnes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is: What do we do in terms of long-term resource adequacy?\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n

This oversupply of renewables is where King sees a pause on renewable development being useful as the capacity of gas plants catches up.<\/p>\n

\u201cOil and gas is such a big part of our economy,\u201d said King, a business and energy attorney. \u201cWhen you build more gas plants, that\u2019s not just benefiting the electric market and the consumers. It\u2019s benefiting probably 30 or 35% of our economy at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Coleman, representing the Texas Association of Manufacturers, the Texas Chemistry Council and the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said since the state deregulated the electric industry 25 years ago, free market principles have prevailed and provided better reliability with better cost outcomes for consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven those who are staunchly pro-market and support low government intervention, there is a compulsion to mess with the market,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cThere\u2019s a discomfort with not being able to control it.\u201d<\/p>\n

King was not the only committee member who expressed concern about the future of the oil and gas industry as solar and battery storage continue to grow onto the grid.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Republican from Brenham, pointed to a column chart distributed by ERCOT, showing what types of power plants are seeking to connect to the grid. She said it was incumbent to look at the left, flatter side of the graph and then the right.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see where all the growth is?\u201d Kolkhorst said, holding up the graph. \u201cWe would never have had all these renewables had it not been for the tax credits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senator told PUC Chairman Gleeson she wants to use all the tools in the toolbox to take advantage of Texas\u2019 ability to frack the gas God blessed the state with.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes distortion deserves distortion,\u201d Kolkhorst said.<\/p>\n

Kolkhorst and other legislators from the Senate Business and Commerce Committee have proposed legislation in the past seeking to restrict the expansion of renewables and have seen opposition from the oil and gas industry, which often uses renewables to power its operations at a lower cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cY\u2019all love that cheap power,\u201d Kolkhorst said to Coleman, the representative of the industrial trade groups. \u201cThat cheap power was delivered to you courtesy of the United States taxpayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trio of business associations opposed the federal tax credits, Coleman said, as it often does for any market interventions\u2014even if theoretically it saves the sectors some money.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the This Week\u2019s Top Stories newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n

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