Alternative Energy Mix in Texas

ERCOT is a non-profit council that supplies Texas with roughly 85% of its electricity. Texas is the only state with its own electric grid and therefore can use its own resources to produce the electricity and is not controlled by federal rules. (1) A large majority of electricity used in this state is for residential use and ranks number one in production and energy consumption throughout the entire United States. It goes to show how much this grid produces considering ERCOT is among one of only ten electric utility industries in the nation. (2) This video shows the ERCOT’s control room and explains all the different areas that they manage. Their jobs include monitoring the markets interaction with the grid, making sure the transmission system is operating safely and reliably, the performance of generation resources, the current a future generation commitments, weather updates, and power flows out of interconnection points. The main goal of all these operations is to ultimately maintain electric reliability. The employees of ERCOT have to be highly trained and prepared to make rational decisions on what actions to take if any problems occur. (3) Watch the video below to get a detailed understanding of Texas's standalone grid.