New Baker Institute Report on improved reliability in ERCOT

Rice’s Baker Institute released a new report this week on reliability in ERCOT. The report considers Texas’ unique factors of strong electricity demand (load) growth, an expanding population, robust economic activity, demand growth from electric vehicle (EV) penetration, cryptocurrency mining, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen market expansion, and general trends toward increased electrification. 

Recommendations include investment in  dispatchable forms of generation, storage capacity in utility areas and/or alongside industrial consumers, storage capacity alongside wind and solar generation, transmission capacity, and siting future generation capacity closer to load centers.