News

Austin American-Statesman ran Suzanne Bertin's opinion piece on reforming Texas's electricity market. Read snippets below and the full article here.

Abundant natural resources, free markets, and a strong commitment to innovation have long positioned Texas as an energy leader. However, Texans’ faith in that leadership was tested this year during Winter Storm Uri, and our state is still looking for solutions to reliably keep the lights on. After the storm, the Texas legislature tasked state regulators with fixing the energy marketplace. This is an opportunity to better integrate advanced energy technologies, like wind, solar, battery storage and efficiency, into the electric grid.

Beaumont Enterprise published a guest column by TAEBA's Suzanne Bertin highlighting the many benefits of school bus electrification, and urging support for related companion bills (SB 1303 by Cesar Blanco / HB 4120 by Joe Deshotel) in Texas. Read excerpts below and the full piece here (sub. req). 

Still reeling from the winter storm emergency in February, Texas now needs to figure out how to protect our state from similar disasters in the future. Here’s one way: Fully integrate distributed energy resources (DERs) like rooftop solar, battery storage and demand response. These technologies, which are located in homes, businesses and institutions all over the state, are capable of producing power, managing electricity demand, and delivering benefits to the energy grid, helping to keep the lights on. But here’s one particularly valuable DER that comes in a surprising package — a simple school bus...

The Houston Chronicle published this op-ed (online and in print) by Suzanne Bertin, managing director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) highlighting the positive impact of energy market deregulation 20 years ago and important considerations as the Texas legislature and PUCT consider policy to build on this success and meet customers' evolving needs. See excerpts below and the entire Houston Chronicle piece here:

It’s been 20 years since Texas gave electricity customers the power to choose.

In 1999, when I was as a staffer at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), the Legislature passed Senate Bill 7 — landmark bipartisan legislation that restructured Texas’ electricity markets, in part by injecting competition into the system.