Energy law professor warns that high demand in power grid could impact maintenance
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The month of May has been hot and the start of summer is still about a month out.
These conditions can create a lot of stress on the grid.
Though the Valley has several wind farms, they’re not sharing power with the Texas grid. The state has its power supply sealed off, meaning other parts of the country aren’t sharing their power with Texas either.
"As more wind and solar get on the system, they drive that price down because they have no fuel cost,” University of Texas at Austin energy law professor David Spence said.
In other parts of the U.S., a power plant is compensated for simply providing additional power to the grid.
"We don't do that,” Spence said. “We rely on power prices that can float much more too much higher levels than in other markets."
With that demand, power plants that want to take a break for maintenance will have to continue to chug along.
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