Batteries Bolster Texas Grid for Eclipse (and Other Challenges)
The big eclipse show is still April 8, when a total eclipse will race across the heart of America, and will also cross Texas, though totality will only last for a few minutes. But eclipses come in pairs, and Texas and the Southwest will see a warm up show next week.
An annular solar eclipse will pass over the ERCOT region on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, impacting solar generation between 10:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. CDT. ERCOT has planned for this forecasted reduced generation and expects grid conditions to be normal. You can monitor current and extended grid conditions on our dashboards at http://ercot.com.
A battery boom is helping to stabilize the Texas power grid, offering a template for utilities that want to cut their greenhouse gases even as air conditioners hum wildly during heat waves.
The growth of batteries was evident last week when energy storage facilities injected a record amount of power into Texas’ electric system. It was badly needed on an evening when the state’s primary grid operator had called on consumers to conserve energy.
“I think it’s a really big deal. I think it’s underappreciated and under-talked about at this point,” said Doug Lewin, an Austin, Texas-based energy consultant who authors the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter. Without batteries, he said, “I think it’s likely that on Thursday night, we would have been in the emergency conditions.”
Texas has been at the center of a national debate over how to green the grid without jeopardizing reliability. The region has been battered in recent years by extreme weather events as the state’s power sector has undergone large changes, with coal generation falling rapidly and renewable production climbing quickly. Solar, in particular, has helped Texas navigate a prolonged heat wave this summer.
Batteries represent the next chapter in Texas’ evolution because they stabilize the grid in the evening, when energy demand is high and solar generation plummets. Texas has installed 2.5 gigawatts of battery capacity over the last five years — about a quarter of total U.S. battery capacity. Only California has installed more.
A scorching summer has put Texas’ new battery fleet to the test. The Austin area has recorded 44 consecutive days of temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Dallas is in the middle of a 19-day streak of temperatures above 105 F.
The searing heating has sent Texans rushing for relief. The use of air conditioners, coupled with population growth, has shattered records for power demand. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs the power grid serving 90 percent of the state, said Sunday it has broken its record for power demand 10 times this summer.
Grid conditions got particularly tight Thursday, when ERCOT urged residents to conserve electricity between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. due to high temperatures, elevated power demand and weak wind energy generation, which often picks up in the evening. Power prices surged to $5,000 per kilowatt-hour, the maximum amount allowed by ERCOT.
That’s when the batteries stepped in. They discharged 1.8 GW of power onto the grid and sent power prices falling to around $2,700 per megawatt-hour.
“It is like two nuclear power plants worth of support for the grid,” said Michael Webber, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin, who studies the power system. “That comes in really handy when you’ve got scarce conditions, high prices, a power shortfall, that kind of thing.”
Batteries have the advantage of being easy to build, he added, noting that most of Texas’ capacity has been brought online in the last two years.
6 thoughts on “Batteries Bolster Texas Grid for Eclipse (and Other Challenges)”
Those 10 largest batteries total almost 1.9 Gigawatt hours. Yesterday Texas’ ERCOT grid consumed 1,200 GW hours, of which wind and solar made 163 GWh, about 6.3% apiece. Coal and gas made 960 GWh, more than three quarters. https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DK
ERCOT grid is run based on energy cost* on a minute-by-minute basis. Those measly 1.9 gWh come in when the production costs would be highest, and are therefore worth more in the system. It’s a fundamental market mechanism, but unlike the trade in drop-on-your-foot products moving material from one place to another where demand (and the price you can get) is higher, it moves power from one time to another when demand (and the price you can get) is higher.
Just a reminder for some people who are confused by the different terminology used between grid batteries and, say, EV batteries and home storage:
Grid batteries are typically described in power output (in units of watts, joules per second, etc.). Grid batteries, whose job it is to store and time-shift energy for when it’s needed, are treated as virtual power plants from the grid operators’ perspective, as they manage moment-by-moment power supplies against consumer demand. Their value is in providing power when it is needed most.
EV batteries are sold in terms of total energy storage (in units of joules, killowatt-hours, etc), because it’s the feature that end consumers understand and care about, and the car designers do all the worrying about power draw. The mental model is roughly that of a gas tank, and their value is how long you can drive around between charges.
Customers of home storage batteries have to look at both power (how many things you can run off of them at once) and total energy capacity. It’s the same as what you have to pay attention to with a backup generator (minus the carbon monoxide).
Batteries are great for stabilizing the grid with associated economic benefits. Batteries are fantastic at replacing emergency ‘spin’ backup with excellent environmental and economic benefits. Everybody should have some. Batteries, at this time, are pitiful at storage.
You have to take into account the non-linear effect a small amount of buffering (in this case, energy storage) can have on a system. In computer engineering, for example, a small amount of fast (read:expensive) ram fronting slower mass storage results in a counterintuitively* large performance increase.
I also expect savvier adaptive algorithms and a transition to a better approximation of a “copper plate” grid.
Those 10 largest batteries total almost 1.9 Gigawatt hours. Yesterday Texas’ ERCOT grid consumed 1,200 GW hours, of which wind and solar made 163 GWh, about 6.3% apiece. Coal and gas made 960 GWh, more than three quarters. https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DK
ERCOT grid is run based on energy cost* on a minute-by-minute basis. Those measly 1.9 gWh come in when the production costs would be highest, and are therefore worth more in the system. It’s a fundamental market mechanism, but unlike the trade in drop-on-your-foot products moving material from one place to another where demand (and the price you can get) is higher, it moves power from one time to another when demand (and the price you can get) is higher.
https://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/contours/rtmLmp.html
(The dangling asterisk was intended for the ERCOT real-time pricing dashboard URL.)
Just a reminder for some people who are confused by the different terminology used between grid batteries and, say, EV batteries and home storage:
Grid batteries are typically described in power output (in units of watts, joules per second, etc.). Grid batteries, whose job it is to store and time-shift energy for when it’s needed, are treated as virtual power plants from the grid operators’ perspective, as they manage moment-by-moment power supplies against consumer demand. Their value is in providing power when it is needed most.
EV batteries are sold in terms of total energy storage (in units of joules, killowatt-hours, etc), because it’s the feature that end consumers understand and care about, and the car designers do all the worrying about power draw. The mental model is roughly that of a gas tank, and their value is how long you can drive around between charges.
Customers of home storage batteries have to look at both power (how many things you can run off of them at once) and total energy capacity. It’s the same as what you have to pay attention to with a backup generator (minus the carbon monoxide).
Batteries are great for stabilizing the grid with associated economic benefits. Batteries are fantastic at replacing emergency ‘spin’ backup with excellent environmental and economic benefits. Everybody should have some. Batteries, at this time, are pitiful at storage.
You have to take into account the non-linear effect a small amount of buffering (in this case, energy storage) can have on a system. In computer engineering, for example, a small amount of fast (read:expensive) ram fronting slower mass storage results in a counterintuitively* large performance increase.
I also expect savvier adaptive algorithms and a transition to a better approximation of a “copper plate” grid.
_______________
*For your average ape.