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Houston Matters

Do Renewables Make The Electric Grid Harder To Manage?

Some say integrating renewable energy into the state’s power grid makes the grid harder to manage. Is that true?

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Recently, on Houston Matters, energy economist Peter Hartley asserted that integration of renewable energy into our electric grid makes the grid more difficult to manage. And several listeners emailed us to dispute this.

So, today, we look for some answers. Is Hartley's assertion accurate, or overblown? How exactly is renewable energy integrated into the state's power grid? What are the challenges regarding grid reliability in Texas today?

Dr. Michael Webber joins us. He’s deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.