A report out this week contradicts information put out by the Public Utility Commission that the state does not have sufficient energy reserves and is in need of changing to a capacity market model.
Texas homeowners have got used to the warnings of depleting long-term energy reserves, but this week's Brattle Group report shows Texas may have sufficient energy reserves until the year 2020.
State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and said there is no pending crisis that indicates the need for a capacity market.
"We’re realizing by over projecting it made it look like there was a shortage that wasn’t there," Fraser said. "And then after Brattle examined the reverses -- the reserves we need to make sure we don’t have rolling blackouts -- the number they came back with was much smaller than what we had been hearing from PUC.”
A capacity market is an energy market where those generating electricity receive compensation for investing in generating capacity --reports indicate that would raise homeowners electricity bills by 11 percent to 14 percent. Fraser said the capacity market conversation is being pushed by energy companies attempt to recoup expenses.
"We’ve got numerous generators in this state that made some real bad decisions on the contracts they put in place for natural gas,” Fraser said.
Fraser said he is waiting to see if the PUC kills the conversation about capacity markets before he schedules another hearing on the issue.
