By Tom Kleckner ERCOT has broken the 70,000-MW barrier for the first time, setting six new systemwide hourly peak demand records this week. The Texas grid operator registered its latest record peaks Thursday when system load reached 71,197 MW between 4 and 5 p.m., after having climbed to 71,043 MW between...

By Rory Sweeney AUSTIN, Texas — In a meeting with Carol Biedrzycki, you will know two things without question: If she isn’t talking, she has nothing to say. If she is talking, she will not stop until she has nothing else to say. Candor and steadfastness are qualities that Biedrzycki,...

By Tom Kleckner CenterPoint Energy said Friday it is no longer considering transforming itself into a real estate investment trust. “Given a broad range of assumptions, we have determined that the potential to create long-term shareholder value by forming a REIT is very limited and does not justify exposure to...

AUSTIN, Texas — ERCOT’s Technical Advisory Committee last week rejected a request to allow economic dispatch of reliability-must-run (RMR) units over the objections of the ISO’s Independent Market Monitor and several of its Houston-area market participants. NRG Texas drafted nodal protocol revision request 784, which addresses how RMR units are...

By Rory D. Sweeney NextEra Energy announced Friday morning that it had reached an agreement to buy cash-strapped Energy Future Holdings’ profitable Oncor assets in a deal that values the Texas transmission and delivery subsidiary at $18.4 billion. The sale, along with a favorable tax decision also announced Friday, would...

By Tom Kleckner Staff from ERCOT and SPP began discussions last week to determine how to work together on Lubbock Power & Light’s planned move to the ERCOT grid. The grid operators conducted a staff-only call July 21 at the behest of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which has...

By Tom Kleckner Interest in bankrupt Energy Future Holdings’ Texas transmission and delivery subsidiary Oncor continues to grow, even as the troubled company struggles to emerge from Chapter 11 without a massive tax bill. NextEra Energy and Berkshire Hathaway Energy are thought to be the leading contenders for Oncor, the...

By Rory D. Sweeney AUSTIN, Texas — Wind energy is quickly becoming a dominant force in ERCOT’s resource mix, and the grid operator is making changes to address it. Speaking to a packed house at a Gulf Coast Power Association luncheon last week, Kenan Ögelman, ERCOT’s vice president of commercial...

By Rory D. Sweeney HOUSTON — Texas, which ranks 10th in installed solar capacity among the states, boasts two assets that could see it rise in the rankings. “We have a lot of sun and a lot of land,” Christine Wright, SolarCity’s deputy director of policy and electricity markets, told...

ERCOT is soliciting must-run alternatives (MRAs) to the reliability-must-run agreement it recently extended to NRG Texas Power’s Greens Bayou Unit 5 in the Houston area. The Texas grid operator issued a notice to market participants July 13, saying it is seeking “lower-cost, effective alternatives” to the RMR agreement, its first...