Dive Brief:
- Texas lawmakers have introduced bills aimed at promoting the development of demand response participation in electricity markets and removing regulatory barriers to provide reliability and economic benefits to the grid.
- The measures would require the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to periodically study and report on the demand response opportunity and the amount of demand response participating in the market.
- A group of demand response providers known as the Advanced Energy Management Alliance (AEMA) lobbied for the bill, saying it would give customers more control over their usage at times when the state’s electric grid is under stress.
Dive Insight:
Bills in the Texas House and Senate are aimed at opening up the state's energy markets to demand response providers. On Thursday, Sen. Kirk Watson (D) introduced SB 1284 and Rep. Sylvester Turner (D) introduced HB 3343.
“We’re giving customers more control over their electricity bill and offering a free-market solution to a critical problem by reducing the demand for electricity when the supply is tight,” Watson said. “Texas has a lot of untapped potential in this area, and I’m hopeful SB 1284 will help draw attention to the benefits of demand response.”
Demand response advocates say the resource is significantly underutilized in the state. While demand response now shaves about 4% of energy use during peak demand periods in Texas, they say that number could reach as high as 15% if barriers to expanding demand response were removed.
