Dive Summary:
- Industry experts at a Texas Tribune conference said that while cheap electricity may seem good to the person paying the bill, the prices aren’t all they’re cracked up to be for the market, reliability or the environment.
- Investment in new power plants has been stifled by cheap wholesale electricity, and Texas regulators say the state could face outages in the next few years as a result of power plant developers not building enough generation to meet growing demands.
- Cheap prices also do little to encourage people to conserve or invest to make their homes more energy efficient, and experts say that new power plants wouldn’t turn a profit at an average price of $25 per megawatt hour.
From the article:
Are low electricity prices good? As my University of Texas economics professor David Kendrick used to say: It depends on who you are. Of course cheap electricity is good when you’re paying the light bill or running a manufacturing plant. But industry experts said Saturday at a Texas Tribune conference that low prices aren’t so great for the market, for reliability or for the environment. …
