ERock is prepared to provide additional support to the grid this summer, as the buffer between supply and demand narrows. ERCOT strives to keep its planning reserve margin at a minimum of 13.75 percent of peak electricity demand, however it only forecasts 9.3 percent for this summer. Due to a number of old and uneconomical coal plants announcing their plans to shutdown, ERCOT could have a very tight power supply in the upcoming months.

Thomas McAndrew, president and CEO of Enchanted Rock, has been in the thick of the Texas market for some time. For him, the ERCOT forecast is not a surprise but fits the pattern he’s seen coming for a while. As McAndrew sees it, the market is providing exactly the kind of signals it should to move away from high carbon power production toward cleaner energy.

“We’re encouraged by the direction the ERCOT market is taking from the standpoint of retiring the older, dirtier, less efficient plants and replacing them with renewables and quick response capacity, like what we provide,” he said. “I think it’s a favorable trend, not just in ERCOT but also across the industrialized grids that are undergoing similar transition.” 

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