The most important thing the PUC can do in 2024 to prevent winter outages

The PUC has made big strides in power plant winterization, virtual power plants (VPPs), and transmission. Next up: residential demand reductions. The Legislature required it.

Credit: Department of Energy

The most recent Arctic blast, happily, was a non-event for the ERCOT grid. It was bitter cold, but nowhere near what Texas saw during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, and there was very little snow or ice. 

But what about when we get the next Uri, or worse? We’d do better than we did in 2021, mostly because power plants are in better…