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Senator Heinrich (quote published 2026-08-06) says grid planning has been driven…

2026-08-06 · 19:55 UTC ·@tylerhnorris ·1 min read

Brief

Senator Heinrich argues that U.S. grid modeling focuses on the single worst hour (usually mid‑July air‑conditioning peak), which overstates continuous need. His bill would allow distributed resources to sell into the grid when capacity is available but require curtailment during constraints; he points to ERCOT’s experience and told Robinson Meyer and Sec. Jennifer Granholm on Heatmap News’ Shift Key (2026‑08‑06) that this could rapidly expand generation nationally.

Why it matters

Senator Heinrich (quote published 2026-08-06) says grid planning has been driven by the “worst-hour of the worst month”—typically the middle of July when residential air conditioning peaks—producing overly conservative capacity assumptions.

Key details

  • His bill would let distributed generators “plug into the grid” and sell power whenever the grid has excess capacity but legally requires them to curtail output when the grid is full, essentially creating dynamic, time-varying dispatch rules.
  • He cites ERCOT as an existing example where voluntary curtailment/sales have worked and told Robinson Meyer and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Heatmap News’ Shift Key that applying this model nationally could add generation to the grid quickly.
Source evidence

“We've always been modeling based on what's the worst-case scenario, what's the worst hour of the worst month when in the middle of July, everybody's coming home and turning on their air conditioning at the same time.

There are vast stretches of time when the grid just has a lot more capacity on it. And so what our bill says is, if you will commit to curtail power when the grid is full, you can just plug into the grid and will let you sell power whenever the grid still has excess capacity, but you're going to have to dial it down when it doesn't have that capacity.

And so that's something that we've seen work in ERCOT, and I think has huge potential for getting a lot more generation on the grid quickly if we apply that nationally.”

—@SenatorHeinrich w/ @robinsonmeyer & Sec. Granholm @heatmap_news Shift Key