The massive growth projections for Texas’s ERCOT power grid raise a vitally important question for the future of our grid and our economy: who should pay for the transmission improvements needed to deliver this electricity? The existing system of transmission cost allocation is known as the Four Coincident Peak (4CP) program. Through 4CP, large consumers pay for transmission costs based on four peak-use (“coincident”) periods during the summer.  This system works well with existing users, in part because it encourages them to implement demand response strategies that reduce their use when energy is tight on the grid. But 4CP isn’t set up to allocate costs at the giant scale of new customers that are coming onto the grid — we

China is outpacing the U.S. on energy deployment. Texas is well-positioned to lead the fast energy buildout America needs. Check out TEBA CEO Rich Powell’s new op-ed in The Dallas Morning News detailing the advantages of Texas’s competitive energy market and the critical role our state can play in the economic race with China — delivering the low-cost, reliable electricity our nation needs. “It’s easier and faster to build energy in Texas than almost anywhere in the country. … It’s crucial to move the energy we need onto the grid faster, and Texas is best positioned to help.” Read Op-Ed

The 2025 regular Texas Legislative Session is over, and the state’s competitive energy market survived it. A few anti-energy bills that would have weakened the state’s abundant, reliable, low-cost power — and that still passed one chamber of the legislature — were ultimately stopped. Through the session, TEBA’s team actively advocated for policies that advance reliable and affordable clean energy, reduce power bills, protect the state’s energy market, and allow a strong diversity of energy resources to meet Texas’s future power needs. In several session wrap-up stories, TEBA praised the legislature for stopping anti-energy legislation but warned about the signal that such bills send to employers who want to invest in Texas. Read More

As TEBA’s Bryn Baker says in this Texas Tribune story, “These resources materially contribute to having enough power on the system and also being able to do it most affordably. (Maintaining) the ability for all resources to play in the market is critical for Texas to maintain its energy leadership, as well as economic leadership. Read More

Texas is in the middle of a years-long conversation about how to generate energy to meet the need for speed: how will the state’s power grid serve fast-growing new loads and the economic benefits they bring? The question of how we move electricity around our great state is just as important. The Austin American Statesman on Sunday published an op-ed by Bryn Baker, the Texas Energy Buyers Alliance’s (TEBA’s) senior director of policy, that highlights the state’s profound opportunity to plan and invest in a transmission system that will meet the state’s 21 st century needs. She also notes the very real economic danger Texas will face if leaders don’t rise to this challenge… Read More