Research Library

Lax regulation exposed electricity producers — and their customers — to failures that killed off all four of Texas’ top generating types: natural gas, wind, coal and nuclear. In this commentary experts from the Center for Energy Studies look at each technology to show what failed.

The ORDC has been proposed in some markets to solve the missing-money problem. The authors estimate the extent to which ORDC prices are negatively affected by wind generation, using hourly data from ERCOT between Jan. 2015 and Feb. 2019. The authors conclude that if wind penetration increases, ORDC may not be a good idea.

With opposition to large-scale energy infrastructure on the rise, transmission service providers find it problematic to build the new power lines essential to a greener grid. This paper highlights the Texas Competitive Renewable Energy Zone initiative (CREZ) — a case study of the difficulties that new power lines face and the policy choices that can facilitate development of this necessary infrastructure. The CREZ experience can inform development of new large-scale transmission infrastructure in other regions.

Center for Energy Studies senior director Ken Medlock provided an overview of trends in electricity generation by source — from coal and natural gas to wind, solar and biomass — and the role of infrastructure during testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 5.  Download the PDFs below to read his written testimony and the questions for the record submitted to Medlock, as well as his answers.

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.

Scholar Raúl Bajo Buenestado examines the consumer welfare consequences of introducing capacity payments in the electricity sector, finding that capacity payments reduce price volatility and increase the reliability of the system but also cause consumers’ electricity bills to rise.

Though consumers generally pay higher electricity prices in areas with capacity markets, those markets also serve as an insurance mechanism to incentivize capacity additions and reduce the probability of extreme events. Graduate fellow Raúl Bajo Buenestado analyzes the implications of capacity markets for consumers in liberalized energy sectors.