ERCOT: State faces potential power shortages for the next decade

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which is the state’s primary electricity grid operator, released a 10-year forecast Tuesday. Officials say the state could see power shortages, which has prompted pressure to raise energy prices and encourage conservation.

The forecast takes into account demand for electricity, weather conditions, the economy and plans for new energy generation.

Fort Hood ventures into solar power

Nearly 3,000 solar panels have been installed at a field at Liberty Village in Fort Hood.

The $3 million Fort Hood project was paid for by the private contractor that owns the housing area and federal tax credits. It will supply about 20 percent of the energy needs of the military families at Liberty Village.

Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez AMERICAN-STATESMAN

If we have a higher-than-normal amount of generation outages or if we experience record-breaking electricity demand because of extreme temperatures - like we had last summer - we may have to ask the utilities to initiate rotating outages to protect the grid from a statewide blackout.

— Kent Saath­off, Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s vice president of grid operations. He says the state’s primary electricity grid - which also serves the Austin area - can expect another stressful summer.

Gas prices soar early this year — and more increases might be on way

In Austin, as well as across the country, gas prices are spiking at an unusually early point in the year.

Gasoline in Austin averaged $3.45 a gallon this week, according to AAA Texas, up nearly 50 cents from the same week in 2011 . Nationwide, a gallon of gas averaged $3.52, up 39 cents from last year.

Canadian oil could reach Texas by summer if Keystone alternative found

President Barack Obama might have rejected the enormous Keystone XL pipeline, at least for now, but that doesn’t mean heavy crude from Canada won’t be flowing into Texas’ refineries later this year.

TransCanada Corp. — the Canadian company that proposed building the $7 billion, 830,000 barrel-a-day pipeline — has some ideas that could lead to moving oil from the oil sands region in northern Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast of Texas without the blessing of the president, the company said.

“We are still very much committed to building this pipeline,” TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said in an interview with the American-Statesman.