NEWS: ERCOT is bringing gigawatts online faster than most of the country—and energy pros are taking notes. ✏️

The playbook: Everybody’s talking about the grid operator’s connect-and-manage framework. How it works: Resources don’t have to wait for the transmission upgrades required for “full deliverability.” ERCOT gives them the go-ahead to connect, then handles congestion via prices and dispatch (while building new lines). 

The pocketbook: All that new generation, including a growing chunk of renewables, has given ERCOT some of the lowest electricity prices in the country. Other regions “can learn from the Texas model by separating physical interconnection from full deliverability and by treating transmission as shared economic infrastructure,” research scientist Joshua D. Rhodes, author of a new report on ERCOT, wrote on LinkedIn.

The big question: Can the same model work for large loads like data centers? Probably, according to Rhodes…but it’ll need firm guardrails like financial commitments and enforceable curtailment.