The State of Texas is among the fastest growing in the nation, attracting people especially from more liberal states to come soak in all Texas has to offer. In just 2024 alone, the state added over 500,000 people to the population, which now stands at over 31 million people. While that is all fine and dandy, it is creating more strain and concern over the already ailing power grid.
As Winter Storm Uri, and even Hurricane Beryl taught us, the grid is unable to withstand natural disasters very well. Even outside of those, we have conservation alerts pop up when the temperature breaks 85 degrees in spring. So, if it cannot hold up to a disaster, how is it going to hold up under a rise in population?
UH energy expert Robert Hirs says a lack of power plants, and no real solution to bridging that power gap, have put us in a bad spot.
"The state does not have enough to provide any assurance that in a bad weather incident that they can deliver electricity to the consumer," he says.
Now, the state did not add residents as quickly as last year, but half a million is nothing to sneeze at, especially on a strained grid.
The problem we also run into is other forms of generation. Green energy, like wind and solar, has not helped stave off problems at all. It has gotten to a point where Texas is trying to tie into grids in Mississippi and Georgia to get power from there.
We have backed ourselves into a corner, and the dream of just building more power plants is fleeting. That is because other states are in just as much demand as we are.
"If we were to start today, we would still be five years behind...the one thing that could save us in five to ten years would be enough solar plants and batteries...but that will not get us through these cold winter nights, if we have another polar event," he says.
As usual with the grid too, the problem begins in Austin. The state legislature has hikes up property taxes and sales taxes, bringing us almost comparable with California when you tally up the total bill.
Lawmakers could take action, putting more pressure on ERCOT, and bring us back to reliable energy. But they refuse to do so, and it is leading us to the brink of a disaster.
"I have been saying this for years...come on guys, start thinking ahead," says Hirs. "Not one elected leader in Austin is thinking ahead for the good of the state or the strength of the grid."
ERCOT has warned that, if we suffer a Winter Storm Uri type event this year, there is an 80 percent chance of rolling blackouts. That is by comparison far higher than the 50 percent chance that was given leading into Uri in 2021.
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