You don’t understand Texas’s powergrid. It’s a free market, there is little planning or foresight. Large scale power production is provided by hundreds, possibly thousands, of independent producers who can turn their production on as they see fit, in other words, when it’s profitable. Therefore backup generation for solar is already present. If there’s not enough, then the market will dictate how much to build and where. That’s how it works in Texas.

instead of dumping the volatility on ancillary services, which get less revenue, because of their off-time, accommodating wind and solar.

Free market, they can deal with it. Yes, it’s a dumb system, but thems the rules in Texas.

A mandate like this makes room for reliable energy rollout, basically more support for natural gas, and presumably batteries, instead of just crowding out the preferred energy types.

This bill is clearly designed to stifle renewable production in favor of fossil energy. Requiring one mode of production to have or purchase backup generation isn’t fair in the current market system. Do away with the market system first before putting a thumb on the scale.

Also preferred energy types? Energy types with the least amount of emissions should be preferred. Not gas, not coal, not oil, or whatever else Texas wants to burn.