Electricity demand in Texas is evolving, posing major challenges for grid reliability. Center for Energy Studies experts lay out ways ERCOT, Texas’ grid operator, can enhance reliability and resource adequacy.
Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Shih Yu (Elsie) HungFebruary 7, 2024
The Texas power grid is infamously disconnected from the rest of the U.S. Its status as an “energy island” can bring both advantages and disadvantages. Two years ago, Winter Storm Uri knocked out power across Texas for days and exposed major reliability concerns. Here, we discuss changes made in the two years since Winter Storm Uri. Is the Texas grid “fixed?”
Julie A. Cohn, Peter R. Hartley, Edward M. Emmett, David M. SatterfieldFebruary 21, 2023
The authors conduct a step-by-step examination of various factors that were blamed for the extended power outage on the ERCOT electricity grid in February 2021. While no single factor fully explains the calamity, the bureaucratic failure in identifying and addressing risks along fuel supply chains was a major failure. Most proposed remedies do not fundamentally address what occurred. The authors make several recommendations, some of which have already been implemented.
Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Shih Yu (Elsie) HungFebruary 2, 2022
Reforms enacted by the Texas Legislature have allowed Texans to choose their own electricity provider since 2002. In this study, the authors analyze monthly residential billing data to assess the impact of competition on retail electricity prices.
Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Olivera JankovskaJanuary 5, 2019
Texas' ERCOT ISO is used as a model for examining the costs of replacing fossil fuels by wind generation and storage, and for comparing wind power with generation based on nuclear and storage.
The results of a study conducted by the authors show that unconventional oil and gas development is a job creator at the state level. This document summarizes a report on these results published by Energy Economics.
Mark Agerton, Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ted Loch-TemzelidesJanuary 17, 2017
This research paper investigates the relationship between the Japan-Korea Marker (JKM) price of LNG, the price of Brent oil, and spot prices of fuel oil and thermal coal imported into Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan.
Adbullahi Alim, Peter R. Hartley, Yihui LanNovember 3, 2015
In this paper, author Peter Hartley examines the recent evolution of markets for LNG, focusing especially on the increasing amount of LNG being traded spot or under short-term contracts of less than four-years duration. Hartley argues that explanations for this increase, and other recent changes in LNG trading, imply that the proportion of LNG being traded under long-term contracts is likely to continue to decline and that the flexibility of long-term contracts for trading LNG is likely to continue to increase.
Technological progress in the exploration and production of oil and gas during the 2000s has led to a boom in upstream investment and has increased the domestic supply of fossil fuels. It is unknown, however, how many jobs this boom has created. Using time-series methods at the national level and dynamic panel methods at the state level to understand how the increase in exploration and production activity has impacted employment, this paper finds robust statistical support for the hypothesis that changes in drilling for oil and gas as captured by rig counts do, in fact, have an economically meaningful and positive impact on employment.
Mark Agerton, Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ted Loch-TemzelidesAugust 22, 2014