Recent Projects

After Winter Storm Uri, the Texas Legislature tasked the Public Utility Commission of Texas with revisiting its standard for system reliability. The Commission responded by proposing a multi-metric reliability standard—one that defines "reliability" not just in terms of the frequency of outages, but also the maximum tolerable duration and magnitude of these events. In our comments, Policy Integrity supported the Commission's overall approach, because multi-metric reliability criteria are an emerging best practice compared to the old one-in-ten approach. We also suggested other ways the Commission could strengthen its proposal.

The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT) requested public input as part of an ongoing effort to ensure the reliability of its wholesale electricity market design following Winter Storm Uri. We submitted comments on how the PUCT can achieve its reliability goals in a manner that ensures just and reasonable rates for consumers. For any new mechanism it may deem necessary, we encouraged the PUCT to choose a design that accords with economic principles. Such a design would compensate both dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources according to their reliability value, include an efficient penalty structure for non-performance of generation units, reduce uncertainty for market participants, and mitigate market power exercise.