New legislation by state Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) would create a state board designed to plan for the waste that comes with Texas’ growing energy footprint.

Hancock’s Senate Bill (SB) 2455 would establish the Texas Energy Waste Advisory Committee made up of seven officials that includes the heads of the Public Utility Commission and of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the comptroller of public accounts, the executive director of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the director of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, the agency head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the state’s land commissioner.

State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) has an identical companion, House Bill 5323.

“The Texas Energy Waste Advisory Committee is created to make recommendations for coordinating and improving state agency and interagency programs that reduce energy waste, increase energy efficiency, and enhance demand response programs in order to increase reliability of electric service in the ERCOT power region,” the bill reads.

In short, the purpose of the body is to find the produced electrons that are deployed less than optimally and direct them to more efficient avenues during times of high grid stress. It is supposed to provide biennial recommendations to the Legislature on how to maximize the grid’s efficiency.

Hancock told The Texan, “When we get tight on electricity from a capacity standpoint, we go to private businesses and ask them to curtail their energy consumption in order to make sure households are being served.”

“Well, I got to thinking, why couldn't the state do that? And how can the state better do that? How do we coordinate that? So that's what all this is about, more efficiency in government. Energy does cost money, and so coordinating those efforts to make sure we're maximizing the investments we've already made and trying to achieve this and working collaboratively to track it.”

It’s an extreme example, but during the 2021 winter freeze and near-grid collapse, some state buildings were lit up at times while much of the state was forced into load-shedding to balance out the grid’s frequency. Most of those facilities continued to receive power because they’re on the same block or adjacent to critical infrastructure — the same reason why some residences never lost power while others nearby were without it for nearly a week.

Hancock’s vision is to streamline coordination such that every electron that can be diverted elsewhere during a period of grid stress is directed that way.

“I just know we’re one of the largest employers in the state, and there's got to be a way that we can make government more efficient, more effective, and less costly in this area.”

Even a few hundred saved megawatts can be the difference between entering emergency conditions or not — which in turn will save money in electricity costs, preventing the wholesale electricity price from rising higher toward the cap and lightening the use of expensive ancillary services.

“This bill represents an important step towards improving grid reliability and efficiency by reducing energy waste,” said Matthew Boms, executive director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance. “Texas is facing unprecedented load growth in the years ahead, with a continued influx of individuals, families and business wanting to move to our state.”

He added, “Smart, measured reforms such as this one that seek to reduce waste, increase coordination among different state agencies and improve the performance of the grid can help the entire state of Texas. We look forward to working with members in both chambers, and on both sides of the aisle, to pass this solution into law.”

The alliance estimates that at a minimum, 4,500 megawatts of wasted power generation could be saved via existing tax credits and rebates.

Neither Hancock’s nor King’s bill has yet been referred to a committee in their respective chamber.