Energy in Texas

Last updated

Texas Net Electricity Generation by Source, November 2020 [1]

Contents

  Petroleum - fired (0.01%)
  Natural gas - fired (44.8%)
  Coal - fired (19.0%)
  Nuclear (9.9%)
  Renewable - Hydroelectric (0.4%)
  Other renewable - solar, wind, etc. (25.9%)

Energy is a major component of the economy of Texas. The state is the nation's largest energy producer, producing twice as much energy as Florida, the state with the second-highest production. It is also the national leader in wind power generation, comprising about 28% of national wind powered electrical production in 2019. Wind power surpassed nuclear power production in the state in 2014. [1] Since 2003, Texas state officials have created various initiatives like the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to develop the economy of Texas.

Electricity

Electricity generation by source, 2001-2016 Texas Electricity Generation.png
Electricity generation by source, 2001-2016

Since 2002, Texas has operated under a mostly deregulated electricity market (however, areas where electricity is provided by either a municipality or a utility cooperative are not always subject to deregulation). The Texas Interconnection is the statewide grid, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Major transmission operators include Oncor Electric Delivery and CenterPoint Energy, with additional companies including Entergy Texas and AEP Texas. [2] Prices for transmission and distribution, as opposed to generation, have risen relatively. [3] In most areas of Texas, consumers can choose their generating provider, but as of 2017 there were areas with limited to no competition. [4]

Renewables

Texas is a leader in alternative energy sources, producing the most wind power of any state, as well as small solar powered efforts and the experimental installation of wave powered generators.

Wind

Brazos Wind Farm, Fluvanna, 2004 GreenMountainWindFarm Fluvanna 2004.jpg
Brazos Wind Farm, Fluvanna, 2004

Texas has over 150 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 30,000 MW (as of 2020). [5] [6] If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: [5] The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. [5] [7] According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind power accounted for at least 15.7% of the electricity generated in Texas during 2017. [8] [9] ERCOT set a new wind output record of nearly 19.7 GW on January 21, 2019. [10]

Solar

The western portion of the state especially has abundant open land areas, with some of the greatest solar and wind potential in the country. [11] [12] Development activities there are also encouraged by relatively simple permitting and significant available transmission capacity. [13] [14]

Fossil fuel production

Texas is the largest state producer of both crude oil and natural gas, producing 41% of national crude oil production and 25% of national natural gas in 2019. The thirty oil refineries operating in January 2019 comprised 31% of national refining capacity. [1]

Petroleum

Oil field in McCamey, ca. 1930 In Texas where Oil is King (7590830760).jpg
Oil field in McCamey, ca. 1930

The known petroleum deposits of Texas are about 8 billion barrels (1.3×109 m3), which makes up approximately one-third of the known U.S. supply. Texas has 4.6 billion barrels (730,000,000 m3) of proven crude oil reserves. [15] As wells are depleted in the eastern portions of the state, drilling in state has moved westward. [16]

Several of the major oil companies have headquarters in Texas, including BP (Houston), ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil (Houston), Exxon-Mobil (Irving), Tesoro, and Valero (San Antonio).

Texas also is home to many of the world's largest oilfield services firms including Halliburton, Schlumberger and Dresser. The state has a number of pipeline operators, such as El Paso and Dynegy, along with diversified energy firms such as TXU and Reliant Energy.

History

On the morning of January 10, 1901, Anthony F. Lucas, an experienced mining engineer, drilled the first major oil well at Spindletop, a small hill south of Beaumont, Texas. The East Texas Oil Field, discovered on October 5, 1930, is located in east central part of the state, and is the largest and most prolific oil reservoir in the contiguous United States. Other oil fields were later discovered in West Texas and under the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting Texas Oil Boom permanently transformed the economy of Texas, and led to its most significant economic expansion after the American Civil War.

Following the December 1989 United States cold wave, which resulted in rolling blackouts and "near loss of the entire ERCOT electric grid", the Public Utility Commission of Texas recommended winterizing the state's energy infrastructure. However, this recommendation was not acted upon. Consequently, the 2011 Groundhog Day blizzard resulting in rolling blackouts and failing power plants throughout the state. [17]

The 2021 Texas power crisis involved mass power outages, water and food shortages, and dangerous weather conditions. [18] The crisis was the result of several severe winter storms sweeping across the United States on February 10–11 [19] and 13–17. [20] More than 3.6 million Texans were without power, [21] [22] some for several days. The cause of the power outages was initially blamed on frozen wind turbines by some government officials, [23] including Texas governor Greg Abbott, [24] but frozen natural gas lines were likely the main cause. [25] [26]

Related Research Articles

A rolling blackout, also referred to as rota or rotational load shedding, rota disconnection, feeder rotation, or a rotating outage, is an intentionally engineered electrical power shutdown in which electricity delivery is stopped for non-overlapping periods of time over different parts of the distribution region. Rolling blackouts are a last-resort measure used by an electric utility company to avoid a total blackout of the power system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric Reliability Council of Texas</span> Regional transmission organization in Texas

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) is an American organization that operates Texas's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90 percent of the state's electric load. ERCOT is the first independent system operator (ISO) in the United States. ERCOT works with the Texas Reliability Entity (TRE), one of six regional entities within the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that coordinate to improve reliability of the bulk power grid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Energy</span> Publicly owned utility providing electrical power to the city of Austin, Texas and surrounding areas

Austin Energy is a publicly owned utility providing electrical power to the city of Austin, Texas and surrounding areas. Established in 1895, the utility is a department of the City of Austin and returns its profits to the city's general fund to finance other city services. Austin Energy is the United States' 7th largest public utility, serving more than 500,000 customers and more than one million residents within a service area of approximately 437 square miles (1,130 km2), including Austin, Travis County and a small portion of Williamson County.

The Texas electricity market is deregulated, meaning that there is competition in the generation and distribution of electricity. Power generators in the Texas Interconnection, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, participate in an energy-only electricity market and are compensated only for the electricity they produce. The wholesale generation market was deregulated in 1995 and the distribution market in 1999, with Texas Senate Bill 7. This replaced the prior system in which power was generated and consumed locally by the same utility with one in which retail providers contracted with generators across the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Interconnection</span> Power grid providing power to most of Texas

The Texas Interconnection is an alternating current (AC) power grid – a wide area synchronous grid – that covers most of the state of Texas. The grid is managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southwest Power Pool</span> American power-grid non-profit in the central Southern US

Southwest Power Pool (SPP) manages the electric grid and wholesale power market for the central United States. As a regional transmission organization, the nonprofit corporation is mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale electricity prices. Southwest Power Pool and its member companies coordinate the flow of electricity across approximately 60,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines spanning 14 states. The company is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wind power in the United States</span>

Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. From January through December 2022, 434.8 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 10.25% of electricity in the United States. The average wind turbine generates enough electricity in 46 minutes to power the average American home for one month. In 2019, wind power surpassed hydroelectric power as the largest renewable energy source in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black start</span> Restoring of electric power station without external electric power

A black start is the process of restoring an electric power station or a part of an electric grid to operation without relying on the external electric power transmission network to recover from a total or partial shutdown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wind power in Texas</span> Electricity from wind in one U.S. state

Wind power in Texas, a portion of total energy in Texas, consists of over 150 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 30,000 MW. If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind power accounted for at least 15.7% of the electricity generated in Texas during 2017, as wind was 17.4% of electricity generated in ERCOT, which manages 90% of Texas's power. ERCOT set a new wind output record of nearly 19.7 GW at 7:19 pm Central Standard Time on Monday, January 21, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electrical grid</span> Interconnected network for delivering electricity from suppliers to consumers

An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wind power in Minnesota</span> Electricity from wind in one U.S. state

At the end of 2016, the installed capacity for wind power in Minnesota was 3,500 megawatts (MW). Wind power generated nearly 18 percent of Minnesota’s electricity in 2016, ranking sixth in the nation for wind energy as a share of total electricity generation.

There is a large array of stakeholders that provide services through electricity generation, transmission, distribution and marketing for industrial, commercial, public and residential customers in the United States. It also includes many public institutions that regulate the sector. In 1996, there were 3,195 electric utilities in the United States, of which fewer than 1,000 were engaged in power generation. This leaves a large number of mostly smaller utilities engaged only in power distribution. There were also 65 power marketers. Of all utilities, 2,020 were publicly owned, 932 were rural electric cooperatives, and 243 were investor-owned utilities. The electricity transmission network is controlled by Independent System Operators or Regional Transmission Organizations, which are not-for-profit organizations that are obliged to provide indiscriminate access to various suppliers to promote competition.

South Australia is a leader in utility-scale renewable energy generation, and also produces gas and uranium for electricity generation. Gas production is mostly concentrated in the Cooper Basin in the state's north-east. Gas is delivered from these fields by pipeline to users interstate and to Port Adelaide where it fuels three separate gas-fired power plants. Uranium is also mined in South Australia, though nuclear power generation is prohibited nationally. The Olympic Dam mine is the world's single largest known deposit of uranium and represents 30% of the world's total uranium resource. Many utility-scale wind farms and solar farms have been commissioned during the 21st century and geology with potential for geothermal energy has also been identified but is yet to be developed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy in California</span> Overview of the use of energy in California, U.S.

Energy in California is a major area of the economy of California. California is the state with the largest population and the largest economy in the United States. It is second in energy consumption after Texas. As of 2018, per capita consumption was the fourth-lowest in the United States partially because of the mild climate and energy efficiency programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wind power in Oklahoma</span> Electricity from wind in one U.S. state

The U.S. State of Oklahoma has high potential capacity for wind power in the western half of the state. In 2021, Oklahoma's installed wind generation capacity was almost 10,500 megawatts, supplying over 40% of the state's generated electricity and 85% of Oklahoma's total generating capacity from all renewable resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Independent System Operator</span> Oversees the operation of the U.S. states electric power grid

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is a non-profit Independent System Operator (ISO) serving California. It oversees the operation of California's bulk electric power system, transmission lines, and electricity market generated and transmitted by its member utilities. CAISO is one of the largest ISOs in the world, delivering 300 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year and managing about 80% of California's electric flow.

Lubbock Power and Light (LP&L) is third largest municipal electric utility in Texas. LP&L serves more than 101,000 electric meters and owns and maintains 4,300 square miles (11,000 km2) of power lines and three power plants in and around the City of Lubbock, Texas.

In electric grid power generators, curtailment is the deliberate reduction in output below what could have been produced in order to balance energy supply and demand or due to transmission constraints. The definition is not strict, and several types of curtailment exist. "Economic dispatch" is the most common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Texas power crisis</span> Mass power outages triggered by snow and ice storms

In February 2021, the state of Texas suffered a major power crisis, which came about during three severe winter storms sweeping across the United States on February 10–11, 13–17, and 15–20. The storms triggered the worst energy infrastructure failure in Texas state history, leading to shortages of water, food, and heat. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed as a result of the crisis.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Texas - State Energy Profile Overview". U.S. Energy Information Administration. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  2. ↑ "ENERGY POLICY: Texas fight could ripple across U.S. grid". www.eenews.net. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  3. ↑ Sixel, L. M. (2019-09-03). "Electricity costs more in Houston as transmission, distribution charges rise". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  4. ↑ "Entergy Texas Customers Forced to Pay Higher Rates". www.saveonenergy.com. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  5. 1 2 3 AWEA Texas Fact Sheet Archived 2021-01-25 at the Wayback Machine (Q3 2020)
  6. ↑ "Utility wind rush set to strengthen as low prices allow resource to spread across nation". Utility Dive. Archived from the original on 2019-08-19. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  7. ↑ "AWEA Third Quarter 2012 Market Report" (PDF). awea.org. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "ERCOT Quick Facts for 2017 published July 2018" (PDF). ercot.com. 2018-07-01. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  9. ↑ "ERCOT Quick Facts for 2017 published February 2018" (PDF). dropbox.com. 2018-02-01. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-02-17. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  10. ↑ "ERCOT Sets Record Wind Output and Penetration Rate Over the Holiday Weekend". TREIA-Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance. Archived from the original on 2019-08-18. Retrieved 2019-08-18.
  11. ↑ "A State-By-State View Of U.S. Renewable Energy In 2017". solarindustrymag.com. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  12. ↑ "Comparison of Solar Power Potential by State". neo.ne.gov. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  13. ↑ "Is a Solar Development Boom About to Begin in Texas?". greentechmedia.com. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  14. ↑ Accounts, Texas Comptroller of Public. "State Energy Conservation Office". www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  15. ↑ "Petroleum Profile: Texas". Archived from the original on September 18, 2002. Retrieved November 7, 2006.
  16. ↑ "The Texas Economy". netstate.com. June 5, 2007. Retrieved April 29, 2008.
  17. ↑ Dexheimer, Eric (11 April 2021). "February power blackouts across Texas echoed 1989 failures, state report shows". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  18. ↑ Travis Caldwell, Keith Allen and Eric Levenson. "The Texas power grid is improving. But days of outages have caused heat, water and food shortages". CNN. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  19. ↑ Rice, Doyle. "Winter storm will bring ice, snow to millions from Texas to New Jersey". USA Today. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  20. ↑ Irfan, Umair (2021-02-18). "Scientists are divided over whether climate change is fueling extreme cold events". Vox. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  21. ↑ Wright, Will; Robertson, Campbell (2021-02-17). "Burst Pipes and Power Outages in Battered Texas". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  22. ↑ "How Many Millions Are Without Power in Texas?". Time. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  23. ↑ Aronoff, Kate; Pareene, Alex; Pareene, Alex; Eldridge, Taylor Elizabeth; Eldridge, Taylor Elizabeth; Shephard, Alex; Shephard, Alex; Shiner, Meredith; Shiner, Meredith (2021-02-16). "Conservatives Are Seriously Accusing Wind Turbines of Killing People in the Texas Blackouts". The New Republic. ISSN   0028-6583 . Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  24. ↑ Rouan, Rick. "Fact check: Frozen wind turbines don't deserve all the blame for Texas blackouts". USA Today. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  25. ↑ Penney, Veronica (February 19, 2021). "How Texas' Power Generation Failed During the Storm, in Charts". The New York Times . Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  26. ↑ Searcey, Dionne (2021-02-17). "No, Wind Farms Aren't the Main Cause of the Texas Blackouts". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-02-18.
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