Pablo Vegas, president and CEO of ERCOT, discussed ERCOT's power demand forecasts and its plans to address them at a board meeting Tuesday.

A pumpjack is obscured by the heat as it operates on dry farmland with large windmills near Midland. The Texas grid was the envy of the world until 2021. ERCOT added solar and wind while keeping prices low, and geothermal and nuclear show amazing promise. Texans know how to build transmission lines and make them more efficient.

ERCOT remains challenged by rapidly-growing electricity demand as more people and businesses move to Texas.

The Blue Jay solar and storage plant in Iola. Solar panels supplied more electricity than coal-fired power plants to the power grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas for the first month ever March 2024.

Delivering reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity wouldn’t be difficult if officials in Austin and Washington worked together. The challenges are not technological or economic; they are about setting priorities.

Pablo Vegas, chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, promised a new approach to grid planning on Tuesday, promising to better track the growing demand for power from industry.

“We need to accelerate aspects of our planning processes and be able to look further into the future, anticipate what’s coming, because it still takes three to six years to build transmission,” Vegas said.

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The Legislature ordered ERCOT to start considering........

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