Texas Underscored That Now Is The Time For National Electric Czar

This piece was co-authored with Brandon Charles, a master’s student at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy who previously worked in the electronics department.

The experience of millions of Texans a few weeks ago is an unparalleled tragedy. Loss of heat, water, and even life as a result of extreme weather has been devastating. Further additional economic damage is likely to be caused by pandemic coronavirus infection. The massive loss of electricity was at the heart of the crisis. Grid operators failed to adequately prepare for increased demand and falling supply due to various weather-related problems: frozen wind turbines, frozen coal pellets and natural gas pipes, and power stations left without the winter necessary to keep pipes, sensors, motors and other components from freezing.

If Texas were anarchy that would be the end of the story. But Texas is part of a pattern of weather-induced events with economic, health, and security impacts. Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and Hurricane Maria all took the fields they hit to a halt, knocking out power for weeks; in the case of Maria leaving Puerto Ricans without power for nearly a year. Wildfires on the West Coast appear to be setting new records year after year, forcing grid operators to cut power to avoid further catastrophic damage. A historic heat wave sweeping the west last summer created a need for black-outs in California after the power operator maintained an insufficient supply to meet the rising energy needs. growing.

While it is difficult to link one weather event to climate change, there is a greater pattern of bad weather – more intense heat waves or cold knots, more frequent storms, wildfires caused by weather – as would be expected from climate change. . The use of cleaner energy sources such as wind and sun can be a powerful tool in the fight to reduce the effects of climate change. However, it is another challenge to integrate these variable sources into the grid, while also providing more electricity generation to power a new fleet of electric vehicles. By 2050, the country’s demand for electricity is expected to rise by as much as 38 percent – bringing new threats to the grid, as well as the economy and national security.

The answer is not to slow these transitions but to deal with the risks in a more aggressive way. One step is to centralize leadership through the appointment of a national Electricity and Innovation Czar. A centralized czar could coordinate the adjustments needed to ensure that the grid is reliable, agile and prepared to withstand severe weather and climate change will lead to more generation and increased demand. The need for this centralized leadership is so important because, although the country has grown and prospered with a twentieth-century grid infrastructure and a well-dispersed system of government, the complex web it has created is made it difficult to identify where, when, and with whom changes should be made – and who should be responsible for failure.

Some background: For most of the twentieth century, the United States had a traditional system of directly connected resources, a fully centralized generation of both property and design, and a management system to address this industrial structure. . These pieces fit nicely together. But over the past 25 years the country has undergone transitions in market design to allow competition, in action to run multi-state grids by independent corporations, and in the technologies as a wider variety of resources have emerged. Now there are cracks between them.

In states like California and Texas, it is the responsibility of a nonprofit corporation to operate the high-voltage grid and maintain reliability. These funds are owned and maintained by private and public companies, including both regulated facilities and other companies. In many other states, private or public utility companies only perform this role. State regulators have authority over the Texas grid operator, the Texas Electric Trust (ERCOT). Federal regulators with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as well as state regulators are authorized over other portions of the high-voltage grid nationwide. State regulators, such as public utility commissions, usually have authority over the planning of facilities and regulate the facilities that have lower voltage circulation lines. The North American Trust Corporation (NERC) exists to ensure the reliability and security of the high voltage power system.

While state and national regulators have tried to make their grids more sustainable – New York after Superstorm Sandy; both California and FERC (after the Texas crisis) today – a breakdown in design, policy knowledge and areas of focus limits the country’s ability to prepare and change. FERC has extensive experience in multi-state electricity markets and businesses. NERC outperforms grid engineering criteria. Grid operators implement market and infrastructure operations. State public utility commissions drive cost recovery, state-level grid design and quality of customer service. There is no doubt that each of these groups has some experience outside their area of ​​focus, and communicates to some extent with the other key groups. However, each entity has limitations, and this allows emergencies to slip through the cracks.

An electric czar would be responsible for making sure nothing slipped through the cracks. To be clear, this person would not in any way interfere with the proper sovereignty authority of state governors. While one might think that FERC could fulfill this role – and certainly FERC has an important calling authority – the czar could be a key source of leadership for coordinating action and encourage it among all accountable entities not to raise concerns about potential FERC regulatory overruns. In particular, the Biden administration should designate a person from national security and economic leadership for this task. This director should work with state and federal agencies to identify best practices and coordinate implementation across the country. This director should also work with these unions to identify where additional federal support, including financial and technical resources, can improve outcomes and translate this information into administrative activities. or strict legislation.

Those in charge of the Texas Texans electric grid failed. Again Americans should not be left to die in darkness. An electric czar can work to ensure that no part of the grid is left, vulnerable to climate change, and unprepared for a clean electric future.