A steady and reliable electrical system is a must for the Texas summer, but economics professor Mark J. Perry said a lack of wind during the summer of 2019 shows the dangers of increasingly relying on wind turbines.

Wind generation provides more than 20 percent of the state’s power, and “because wind turbines don’t operate in the still air of July, reserve margins evaporated,” Perry told the Detroit News. The main power supplier for the state, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), saw electricity prices soar from $20-$30 to $9,000 per megawatt-hour twice.

 The entire electric power system could have gone down if just one or two power plants had gone out of service or a gas pipeline ruptured, Perry, a professor at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said.

Perry failed to respond to interview requests.

“Fortunately, there were no rolling blackouts or brownouts. Texas dodged the bullet, thanks to appeals for voluntary reductions in power demand requested by power companies," he told the Detroit News in an opinion article.   

ERCOT relied too much on wind power Perry attributed to a big drop in costs, growing numbers of state mandates and subsidies for renewables. That kept the marketplace from working property for electricity, he said.

“In Michigan, there are more than 1,000 wind turbines fueled by millions of dollars in federal tax credits. But wind power is facing a backlash from property owners who worry that wind farms will destroy property values and rural quality of life,” Perry told Detroit News.

He said that in May 2019, grid operators in California shut down 4,700 megawatts of surplus energy because it wasn’t worth anything at the time of production. This is part of the reason the electricity prices in the state are sky-high, Perry told Detroit News. California's electricity prices increased to the point that the state pays 60% more than the rest of the United States.