Texas would be 'crazy to penalize renewables,' CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza says

Rudy Garza, CEO of CPS Energy, the nation's largest integrated municipal power and gas utility, doesn't mince words when it comes to the effort by some policymakers in Texas to punish renewables for the broad failures during Winter Storm Uri.

Garza became CEO a little over a year ago but has deep experience in Texas energy. And as one of the largest generators and customers in ERCOT, CPS Energy has a unique position in the market.

Garza, while recognizing the need for more dispatchable resources in the ERCOT market, opposes efforts to penalize renewables, a current legislative focus.

"I think it’s crazy to penalize renewables. We need every megawatt on the system that we can get our hands on," Garza said on Episode 8 of the Texas Power Podcast.

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TIMESTAMPS

2:16 - About Rudy Garza

4:29 - About CPS

8:03 - Winter Storm Uri 

11:12 - Rotating outages

15:56 - Market redesign proposals in the legislature

18:23 - Attempts to penalize renewables 

20:35 - Closing coal units and diversification of energy sources at CPS

23:56 - Battery storage

25:23 - Deliverability issues with natural gas

28:46 - Energy efficiency, virtual power plants, demand response

35:20 - Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, including direct pay for municipal utilities like CPS

42:18 - Large scale storage, including CPS’ pumped hydro storage pilot

44:58 - Distributed storage

47:20 - How CPS empowers customer to reduce costs and increase efficiency

51:45 - CPS’s future

52:44 - EVs