ERCOT Storage Reaches 33.1 GWh as Summer Prices Fall 42%
SEIA says Texas and California summer wholesale energy costs were $6.05 billion lower than in 2021, as ERCOT battery capacity reached 33.1 GWh and prices fell 42%.
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SEIA's comparison, reported Oct. 26, covers June through August in Texas and California.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Solar and storage lowered summer wholesale energy costs in Texas and California by about $6.05 billion compared with 2021, the Solar Energy Industries Association said in figures reported on Oct. 26, even as demand rose.
ESS News, relaying the SEIA comparison, puts Texas at about $3.55 billion of that gap and California at about $2.5 billion, for June through August, using inflation-adjusted day-ahead prices. In the California Independent System Operator market, average wholesale prices fell 51 percent, from $77.54 per MWh to $38.32. Peak hourly prices fell from $141.75 to $59.69. Load was up 2.5 percent. In ERCOT, average prices fell 42 percent, from $54.97 per MWh to $31.77, and peak hourly prices fell from $110.96 to $57.30, while load rose 30.1 percent.
Battery fleets did the shifting. Storage installed through the first half of 2026 reached 33.1 GWh in Texas, more than 26 times the 2021 level, and 62.0 GWh in California, nearly seven times the earlier level. SEIA's account says batteries now cover 6 to 7 percent of daily energy use in California and a bit over 1.3 percent in Texas. Solar generation over the same span rose 421 percent in Texas and 90 percent in California.
Average wholesale prices fell in both markets versus 2021. The comparison does not split solar from storage.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Wholesale savings are not the retail bill
The same note warns that cheaper wholesale power did not pass through one for one. The generation portion of residential bills fell 10 percent in California and 4 percent in Texas, while other charges rose. California transmission costs were up 12 percent, distribution 51 percent and a wildfire-and-overhead bucket 90 percent. Texas transmission and distribution costs rose 17 percent and 23 percent.
ERCOT's summer peak this year reached 91.1 GW, so the price drop happened against a larger system, not a quiet one. SEIA chief executive Tim Pawlenty tied the wholesale result to the argument that solar and storage are pushing prices down ahead of the midterms. That is his framing of the data, not a regulator's finding.
What the comparison does not show
The figures are a 2021-to-2026 wholesale comparison, not an hour-by-hour dispatch study of batteries alone. They do not separate the solar effect from the storage effect inside the $6.05 billion. Rooftop solar generation in the same account rose 172 percent in Texas, to 1,533 GWh, and 107 percent in California, to 7,997 GWh.
