Testimony to the Texas State Legislature: SB 1191

Jeff S. Haberl, Ph.D., P.E.
Associate Director, Energy Systems Laboratory
Texas Engineering Experiment Station, Texas A&M University System
March 24th, 2008

 

• Thank you for the opportunity to testify for SB 1191 - relating to the

statewide peak electric demand through demand response and load
management.

 

• As requested by Senator Ellis and Watson’s staff, the ESL has
calculated the potential electricity and NOx emissions reductions from
a 1% to 5% peak electric demand reduction across the ERCOT region
during peak ozone period.

• If we use the peak demand using August of 2007 (i.e., 62,188 MW), a
1% to 5% demand reduction would be 622 MW to 3,110 MW.

• The MWh can be converted to NOx values using the 2007 edition of
the USEPA’s eGRID database after proportioning the electricity sales
data in the ERCOT region according to the published electricity sales
data for Texas in 1998. The results show that the NOx emissions
reduction from one hour of electricity savings of 622 MWh to 3,110
MWh would be 0.45 to 2.24 tons-NOx. These procedures use the
same analysis the ESL developed for the TCEQ for NOx emissions
credits from the USEPA, which would allow the results from this
program to be converted into creditable NOx emissions credits.

• If the peak demand reduction were to continue for a four hour period,
(12:00 Noon to 4:00 PM), the electricity reduction would be 2,488 to
12,440 MWh, with a corresponding NOx emissions reduction of 1.80
to 8.96 tons-NOx.

• By comparison, in 2005 it was estimated that the average daily
electricity savings from the code-compliant new construction for
single family residential during an ozone season day (OSD) was 776
MWh, with a corresponding NOx emissions reduction of 0.76 tons-
NOx/OSD.