Doug Lewin
@douglewinenergy
Followers
15,111
Following
4,037
Media
1,244
Statuses
16,282
Author, Texas Energy & Power Newsletter; Host, Energy Capital Podcast; President, Stoic Energy;
Austin, TX
Joined March 2016
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Israel
• 3172853 Tweets
Iran
• 2693374 Tweets
ايران
• 1101331 Tweets
Gaza
• 997571 Tweets
اسرائيل
• 949437 Tweets
Tel Aviv
• 673756 Tweets
Walz
• 519443 Tweets
Netanyahu
• 516703 Tweets
Presidenta
• 412256 Tweets
Vance
• 399075 Tweets
Middle East
• 370012 Tweets
Halloween
• 313304 Tweets
Claudia Sheinbaum
• 241706 Tweets
Iron Dome
• 158597 Tweets
Champions League
• 146681 Tweets
イスラエル
• 126704 Tweets
Wizkid
• 93332 Tweets
Adams
• 89795 Tweets
John Amos
• 89030 Tweets
#الهلال_الشرطه_العراقي
• 83372 Tweets
World War 3
• 80162 Tweets
Davido
• 78746 Tweets
Good Times
• 67798 Tweets
Young Boys
• 61157 Tweets
Tigers
• 59661 Tweets
Dortmund
• 52341 Tweets
Isreal
• 49038 Tweets
Raiders
• 43008 Tweets
60 Minutes
• 40988 Tweets
#GHLímite4
• 39250 Tweets
Royals
• 35708 Tweets
対象作品
• 34266 Tweets
Astros
• 33117 Tweets
集英社秋マンガチャ開催
• 32610 Tweets
からくりサーカス
• 30520 Tweets
ケンタッキー
• 28252 Tweets
Orioles
• 25630 Tweets
#TemptationIsland
• 22742 Tweets
Frogido
• 22329 Tweets
Brewers
• 21152 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
The Senate Committee on hurricane preparedness & recovery is about to begin. Here's what I'm looking for today:
-is this a show trial or will they deal with deeper policy issues?
- will the cmte ask tough questions about the $800m (im)mobile generators? (cont.)
#txlege
1/🧵
5
55
216
This
@washingtonpost
article on the Texas heat is remarkable. "The heat dome responsible for the ongoing Texas heat wave is one of the strongest of all time & according to
@WeatherProf
is 'basically impossible' without climate change."
#txlege
#txclimate
142
1K
2K
You know what hasn't been added to the call? Anything to fix the loophole that allows gas suppliers to opt out of regulation for $150, leaving us vulnerable to outages this winter. So Texas will regulate whether businesses can require vaccines but not gas supply. Got it.
#txlege
NEW: Texas Gov.
@GregAbbott_TX
bans any COVID vaccine requirements by *any* entity in the state.
Adds this issue to the current special session agenda.
35
42
89
40
528
2K
The PUCT and ERCOT have neglected some of the best solutions for the grid and customers—such as energy efficiency and demand response—and implemented very expensive (and apparently ineffective) ones. Now they're attempting to blame wind for their continued problems.
#txlege
1/🧵
55
654
2K
Takeaways after the storm:
1) Texas got lucky. The weather wasn't that bad, more like '14 or '18 than Feb '21 or '11 so demand stayed below projections
2) Even so, gas output dropped
3) Renewables significantly overperformed
4) Thermal power plant outages were low
1/🧵
#txlege
28
329
1K
It should surprise no one that the
#ERCOT
grid isn't fixed. There's a good chance there will be outages at some point over the next 3 days. Here's a look at what's going on.
1/🧵
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
41
455
1K
This afternoon, the ERCOT grid reached 82.8% carbon free power with 71.2% was provided by renewables. Both are all-time records. Prices were $0 for about 6 hours.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
h/t
@grid_status
41
343
1K
Yesterday at 6:31CT, one of the four nuclear units in Texas stopped producing power. A new fast acting backup reserve (ECRS, which is mostly batteries) stabilized the grid & prevented bigger problems. ERCOT has said nothing about this outside of what's below but... (cont)
#txlege
46
530
1K
Violently putting down protests will only create more protests. If you want to stop the protests, the dumbest thing you could possibly do is violently suppress them.
Texas State University students held a pro-Palestinian protest today inspired by their UT Austin peers. "We weren't planning on doing anything like this until we saw students' heads getting smashed into the ground up the road," said student Joseph Ely.
70
453
1K
178
159
1K
ERCOT won't be credible until they start communicating honestly. They completely left out the fact that 6,600 megawatts of gas and coal plants are currently offline. That's >30% higher than typical. They also got the hours wrong. 1/🧵
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
(1/2) TXANS Update—8/17/23: ERCOT has issued a Voluntary Conservation Notice for 3 – 8 p.m. today, Aug. 17, due to extreme temperatures, forecasted high demand, & lower reserves due to low wind generation. Texans are asked to voluntarily reduce electric use, if safe to do so.
360
275
338
34
457
998
#Texas
solar shattered its previous record. New record is 21,657 megawatts which met ~40% of demand today. This puts Texas' solar record a full 2,000 megawatts above California's. Wholesale power was free for 2 hours today and <2c per kWh all day.
#txlege
#energytwitter
#txenergy
30
272
904
ERCOT declared an energy emergency. This was *likely* a big power plant tripping off line; see the frequency drop below. Storage set an all-time record when it was needed most, almost certainly preventing rolling outages.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
69
253
862
Finally, some governmental attention for East Texas. The Governor didn't post anything about the situation till today, 48 hours after the storm. Still ~250k people without power. Praying for the people of ETX & for the workers helping them.
#txlege
Still no disaster declaration from Gov Abbott for East Texas even though there are ~300,000 Texans still without power in a heat wave. Full restoration not expected until Friday. No press coverage at all outside of ETX. It's like a major hurricane hit and no one noticed.
#txlege
16
157
215
48
410
768
ERCOT has called for conservation and conditions are very tight indeed today. Solar is making a massive, determinative difference, producing 12 gigawatts on peak.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
62
256
752
Texas' new all-time winter peak, is 76,340 megawatts. And at the peak, wind power produced ~23 gigawatts, or 30% of peak demand. Not coincidentally, despite the recorded breaking demand, power prices were low. Thank one of the 30,000 Texans working in the wind industry!
#txlege
18
178
755
About 800,000 Texans are heading into tonight w/out power. It doesn't have to be this way. Distributed energy resources (local generation & storage) along w/ weatherization for homes and buildings could make the grid much more resilient.
#txlege
1/
55
195
720
There's a new solar record in Texas! Fitting it's happening on this ultra cold, high demand day. We're over 14,000 megawatts which is 3x the amount we had three years ago!
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
25
191
724
Over 5 million Texans are without power as
#HurricaneBeryl
moves through the Houston area. Restoration will take many days & high temperatures will be in the 90's throughout the week. Today's scheduled
#txlege
hearing on the progress of utility resiliency plans was canceled.
63
358
723
About last night... ERCOT has some questions to answer. They made another call for unpaid demand response tonight, the 10th in 3 weeks. And the transmission issue that may have caused last night's problems may rear it's head again...
#txlege
#energytwitter
50
259
713
After the Uvalde murders, Gov Abbott said we need more mental health care.
At the time we were 51st in access to mental health care.
According to Mental Health America, we are STILL 51st a year later.
Actions speak louder than words.
#txlege
Texas is 51st out of 50 states and DC for access to care, according to Mental Health America.
Expanding Medicaid would help with this. Maybe that should be on the special session call the Governor is considering.
#txlege
2
12
26
27
345
706
No gas, no heat, and no communication? "The Dallas-based natural gas company has closed their customer service line for the holiday weekend in an announcement made on Twitter."
Is this true
@atmosenergy
?
Unbelievable.
#txlege
#txenergy
44
342
699
New solar record in Texas, first time over 15,000 megawatts, per
@grid_status
. Solar is meeting over 33% of power demand in ERCOT right now... and prices are low.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
23
174
615
There's a new demand record in ERCOT at 85,931 megawatts, ~300 MW higher than 8/10/23. Prices on peak then were near the $5,000 per megawatt-hour cap. Prices on peak today were ~$40 — 99% less. The difference? There's 8 gigawatts more solar today than last August.
#txlege
22
170
614
Two records broken in
#ERCOT
this weekend:
Old peak demand weekend record: 77,359MW
New weekend record set today at 4:55pm: 79,024MW
Old solar record: 12,757MW
New solar record: 13,080MW
Despite high demand, prices were low thanks largely to renewables.
#txlege
#energytwitter
30
223
578
This is incorrect. The highest winter demand days were in the week of Feb 15, 2021. Perhaps some have forgotten that week when hundreds of fellow Texans died. Peak demand was between 77-82GW for several days. We don't know exactly bc there wasn't enough power to serve it.
#txlege
The ERCOT grid performed well again today.
Yesterday, Texas had the highest power demand in any winter. Today was the 2nd highest demand day for winter power.
During 2 extremely cold nights, the power grid has not failed.
No Texan has lost any power because of the ERCOT grid.
991
443
5K
5
152
553
Two of the five justices who voted to take away the right of citizens to sue ERCOT are up for election in 2024. They are Justices Jimmy Blacklock and Jane Bland, both Abbott appointees before being elected. Can't imagine this plays well with the electorate...
#txlege
21
360
538
"ERCOT has 'known about [South Texas transmission problems] for a long time' Lewin said. That made the grid operator’s continuing blame on solar and wind performance Thursday 'even more galling.'"
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
25
246
530
"None of those generators have been put in service since CenterPoint first began renting them in 2021." There is a public comment period open now on these unusable $800 million generators. A public hearing will be held if requested by Thursday.
#txlege
1/
23
231
532
There are now over one million Texas homes and businesses without power; that's ~2.5 million people, all in the eastern half of the state. In multiple counties, more than 40% of people are without power.
#txlege
57
339
529
Seriously, this should be easy. CenterPoint should let everyone know where those generators are. Houston ratepayers paid $200 million for them; they deserve to know. I hope the
@PUCTX
asks questions about the mobile generators at the Open Meeting tomorrow.
#txlege
ISO: Massive, semi truck-sized emergency generators owned by
@Centerpoint
and paid for by customers. They are supposed to be supporting communities without power right now. Help us find them! A 🧵 1/7
#TxLege
#TxEnergy
38
475
2K
14
194
523
Batteries again helped keep us out of emergency conditions in Texas. Storage discharged >500 megawatts of power for two hours. Peak storage was 1,148 megawatts — at the exact time when we needed it the most when conditions were tightest @ 7:50pm.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
Storage has helped keep our ACs running. See this excellent story from
@brett_shipp
&
@SpectrumNews1TX
. We have 3500 megawatts (= to Austin) right now but most are used for reserves. By next summer, expected to be 7,000MW & ~15,000 by 2025.
#energytwitter
1
12
51
43
138
510
ERCOT expects to be in emergency conditions tonight. We're in this situation because Texas policymakers have neglected demand side solutions. This is a lever the ERCOT control room wishes it had tonight. Stuff like this:
#txlege
#energytwitter
58
200
490
80% carbon free power in ERCOT rn. And prices are zero. You can understand why some owners of coal & gas plants are working hard to punish renewables. But make no mistake, this is good for Texas consumers, the Texas economy, and public health.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
25
139
481
The
#ERCOT
Board just heard a long presentation on load forecasting including planning into the 2030's.
There was no mention of
#climatechange
. Not one.
They use average temps to project load. No wonder we're unprepared.
#txlege
#txenergy
#txclimate
16
208
462
Texans have shattered the all time Sept. record by 12,000 megawatts! (record now 84GW)
Transmission lines are congested again today, causing prices to go up & the risk of outages to go up.
Look for batteries to play a big role again tonight. 1/
#energytwitter
#txlege
#txenergy
35
150
460
Wind, solar, and nuclear are supplying ~80% of demand in ERCOT today. It could be more but it appears there's a lot of curtailment or congestion. Again, great day for consumers as wholesale power prices are <$0.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
20
126
465
New storage record in ERCOT tonight with 3,283 megawatts deployed at 7:45. It's really exciting to see how quickly batteries are reaching scale and having an impact.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
19
106
463
There are now over 22,000 megawatts of solar power in
#ERCOT
, a 10x increase in 4 years. There are also over 5,000 megawatts of battery storage, a nearly 20x increase in just 3 years. Just astounding growth, a major success story.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
46
106
456
New solar record in ERCOT today by more than a gigawatt with 16,668 megawatts. That's ~35% of demand. Breaks the previous record which was 15,258MW.
Wind, solar, and nuclear are combining to provide ~65% of power today. Prices are very low.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
13
136
456
“'I think it's a really big deal. I think it's underappreciated at this point.' Without batteries, 'it's likely that on Thursday night, we would have been in emergency conditions,' said Lewin, who authors the Texas Energy & Power Newsletter."
#txlege
27
180
414
There are now 9.6 gigawatts of gas & coal plants offline, down from 10.6GW earlier today. ERCOT considers 8.4 GW to be high. They do not show outages on their online dashboard.
Peak demand forecast for next week is 85GW.
This level of thermal outages is dangerous.
#txlege
33
158
416
Renewable energy helped Texas' grid survive summer heat, analyst says
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
66
104
400
#ERCOT
defines "extreme" levels of gas, coal, & nuclear plant outages as 11 gigawatts. There is currently that much capacity offline. Meanwhile, renewables are performing above expectations and providing 30-40% of the power needed today.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
1/
10
124
403
The company that was selected to receive the 2nd largest award in the Texas Energy Fund, and included NextEra without their knowledge or consent, is Aegle Power. Its CEO was convicted of embezzlement in 2017.
#txlege
#energytwitter
#txenergy
9
191
408
The Governor said yesterday "no one can guarantee there won't be load shed" even though he previously guaranteed the lights would stay on.
What is "load shed"? What are the chances we'll experience outages again? And how will we know if the grid is more reliable?
#txlege
1/🧵
21
134
394
Yesterday, wind power broke the all-time ERCOT record @ 27,515 MW. The previous record stood since May '22. Renewables reached 68% of power demand, just shy of the all time record of 70%. That record likely would've been broken w/out curtailment.
#txlege
#txenergy
@grid_status
33
120
397
"The state was dinged for... concerns about its power grid, its aging water utilities, skimpy per-pupil school spending, rising housing costs &... one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation & what CNBC called an ongoing 'crackdown' on LGBTQ+ rights."
49
168
382
Update from across the state line. Absolutely devastating situation playing out in East Texas & Western Louisiana with almost no press coverage. Probably about a million people without power in a terrible heat wave.
#txlege
@TexasTribune
@dallasnews
@HoustonChron
@TexasMonthly
I just talked with my colleague, Chairman Campbell, to offer any help my office can provide to his team.
SWEPCO & Entergy are working to restore power as fast as they can. This is a horrible weather situation that is affecting so many.
I’ll post any updates I get here.
3
26
64
19
229
370
How likely is the heat we're feeling today driven by climate change? Very. The intense heat across more than half of Texas is 5x more likely with human-caused climate change than without it. We've loaded—and continue to load—the dice for extreme weather.
196
158
378
#ERCOT
treats 2011 as an outlier. It was not. Mild/average summers are now outliers. Planners need to *expect* extremes from here on. The climate has already changed & the rate of change is increasing. Climate denial puts us in danger.
#txclimate
#txlege
55
109
367
...this is potentially a big deal. The public deserves answers about what this means for this week. If it doesn't come back by Tuesday, the probability of rolling outages is higher than it otherwise would be. ERCOT is projecting a margin of only 2,582MW at 7pm Tuesday. Not good.
5
80
357
CenterPoint should not buy more generators. Customers should be reimbursed for the $50 million in profits & $800 million spent on "mobile" generators the utility couldn't use. To charge ratepayers even more for generators adds insult to injury.
#txlege
10
168
368
Texas broke the solar record yesterday, reaching 20,459 megawatts; solar power provided 26% of peak demand. Record last July was 13,420MW. That's a 52% increase in one year. Likely to have another 50% increase before next July. Wholesale prices were low.
#txlege
#energytwitter
12
135
356
'The grid is not fixed': Report outlines the likelihood of power outages this winter
21
179
347
#ERCOT
projects a peak of 82GW but it's unlikely it will get that high. There are 9GW of gas & coal plants offline (ERCOT considers 8.3GW to be "high") but it won't matter bc wind & solar are expected to combine for 33GW or about 40% (!) of peak demand.
#txlege
#energytwitter
21
83
351
Here's a live look at
#ERCOT
prices and a reminder that
#txlege
hasn't passed any transmission bills. Transmission congestion cost Texas consumers $3 billion last year alone. Plenty of low cost power in the Panhandle just can't get it to the load centers.
#txenergy
#energytwitter
14
187
342
Every component for wind & solar power is now cheaper to manufacture in the US than abroad. The
#InflationReductionAct
is industrial policy and it's working. Texas should be getting more of this manufacturing; animus toward renewables from state leaders is self-defeating.
#txlege
New working paper from
@ErinNMayfield
& my group's estimates the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act on the US wind & solar industries, including changes in US manufacturing competitiveness, wind & solar costs, employment growth, & demand for materials:
6
41
137
13
112
343
"Last year, the grid operator issued 11 such calls for conservation, 'compared to none this year,' Lewin said.
'The biggest difference is a whole lot more solar and a whole lot more storage.'”
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
17
97
350
We have a problem and it's name is gas. It is not currently reliable. That's not a value judgement or an opinion. It's an observable, empirical fact. This is 2x in 1 month. Texas gas and the ERCOT grid are still vulnerable to winter freezes.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
13
160
332
Skyrocketing clean energy job growth means more than 250,000 Texans now work in the field — more than in oil and gas.
#txlege
#energytwitter
8
127
346
Batteries just missed the all-time record tonight but eclipsed 3,000 megawatts for only the second time. It appears a large coal plant went offline during the critical evening hours but, with batteries filling in, the market shrugged. No conservation call, no emergency.
#txlege
13
89
336
There's a new solar record in
#ERCOT
w/ 20,800 megawatts generated at 1:15 today. At that time, it was blazingly hot througout Texas & solar provided >25% of supply. Despite the high demand, wholesale power prices were below 3 cents/kWh. h/t
@grid_status
#txlege
#energytwitter
10
93
335
Top 3 solar days in ERCOT's history are today and the previous two days. Solar is consistently producing ~25% of our power needs on the hottest summer days with the highest demand.
#energytwitter
#txlege
#txenergy
8
86
336
Remember, this isn’t the first time some have attempted to blame wind for grid failures; they did the same after the Feb 2021 outages but quickly walked it back after the lie was exposed. It's a lie that wind is performing less than expected this week. 10/
7
90
321
We could be in trouble today bc of: (1) the unreliability of thermal power plants & (2) massive demand, which is a direct result of systematic underinvestment in things like energy efficiency & demand response. Of all the states w/EE goals, we're dead last.
#txenergy
2/
4
92
321
We are in the clear. A few takeaways:
-ERCOT should never have set the conservation call to end at 8.
-We need more demand response.
-Wind came on strong passing 10GW as the sun set, as it typically does.
-Storage shattered its previous record by 80%!
More tmrw.
#txlege
#txenergy
19
55
314
#ERCOT
update: New
#solar
generation record set today (9,639MW) *and* a new peak demand record ~79GW. Hopefully, regulatory uncertainty doesn't slow down development. Solar is complementary w/ wind, reliable, & low cost.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
9
118
309
Last week, when consumers needed ~80 gigawatts of power on multiple days, renewables likely saved Texans many billions of dollars. "By taking strain off the grid, renewables are helping keep a lid on Texas’s power prices"
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
14
111
302
There are about a million Texans without power tonight. We need to scale local sources of power for resiliency rapidly. Extreme weather is getting more extreme and Texas ranks in the bottom third of states for reliability. Energy and power systems must change. Quickly.
#txlege
15
148
302
New
#ERCOT
solar record today with 18,356 megawatts around 2:00. Solar was meeting more than 42% at that point. Beats the old record, set last month, by more than 1,000 MW per
@grid_status
. More solar megawatts coming this summer and we'll need all we can get.
#txlege
#txenergy
17
98
308
During the night and through the peak, wind significantly overperformed. I'm sure state leadership fond of bashing renewables will publicly thank the people of the renewables industry for their great work in helping Texans throughout the storm.
#energytwitter
4/
4
73
292
At this hour, there are 10,400 megawatts of gas & coal power plants offline. Hopefully, the plant operators are just getting them ready for the heat next week, but this level of thermal plant outages is nearing the extreme level (11,200MW) by ERCOT's definition.
#txlege
#txenergy
Turns out natural gas, coal and nuclear-powered electricity aren’t all that reliable. The future of the Texas grid requires a mix and new technologies are a big part of the answer. FREE link:
@HoustonChron
#txlege
53
103
248
22
124
300
Last thing, it's important to take a minute and thank the utility and energy workers out there in the ice and cold working to keep us all warm. Thanks to all those out there who work in dangerous conditions on our behalf. You are appreciated.
6/ End🧵
#txlege
2
24
294
It would be nice if we could get through this & then quickly begin to scale energy efficiency, residential DR, and distributed solar & storage, etc., so there’s no need to blame anyone next time. We need less blame and more problem solving in Texas.
#txenergy
12/End
17
41
289
The
#ERCOT
forecast is up to 82.7GW on 6/16 which would shatter the all time peak in ERCOT and is almost exactly what ERCOT expected the peak to be in July or August.
We've got to get serious about
#energyefficiency
and optimizing energy use going forward.
#txlege
#energytwitter
40
104
290
Lack of transmission to South Texas is costing Texans billions. Transmission congestion cost the market $2.8 billion last year alone, according to the Independent Market Monitor. This year shaping up to be another expensive one.
#txlege
#txenergy
#energytwitter
19
98
280