New Texas Power Rules Raised Cost $12 Billion, Watchdog Says (1)

A watchdog for the Texas electric grid said new rules this year have led to more than $12 billion in additional costs, up from a previous estimate of $8 billion over the summer, the latest development in a contentious debate over power reserves in the Lone Star State.

In early June, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or Ercot, started setting aside a new pool of reserves that can respond quickly to cover shortfalls, as when solar supply drops at sunset. But that change also kept cheap power generation sitting idle during hot summer days. The result: artificial scarcity, ...