Berkshire Hathaway’s Energy Idea Is a Bad Fit for Texas

…The idea is that these backup units would only run during true emergency situations, such as the devastating winter storm Uri in 2021, and stay out of Texas’ competitive energy market. But the concept is easier said than done: At first, lawmakers placed an exact threshold on how tight the grid operating conditions should be before running those backup plants, but later revised the bill to leave much of that up to interpretation by an independent organization. 

The bill states that such backup power plants could be used to “resolve an actual or anticipated violation of transmission security criteria.” That is a phrase that could be interpreted as regular transmission congestion, something that happens “every few minutes,” according to Beth Garza, senior fellow at think tank R Street and a former director of the independent market monitor for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or Ercot, which is the electricity system operator for Texas…