- ERCOT is largely on its own. Limited ties to neighboring grids mean limited help in a statewide emergency.
- Plan for two seasons. Summer is about air conditioning load; winter is about low solar output and heating.
- Decide the outage you are planning for first. A few hours and several days lead to very different equipment.
Get a recommendation for your home and outage goal.
Build My Power Plan →What is different about Texas
Most Texans get their power through ERCOT, a grid that operates largely apart from the two big interconnections serving the rest of the continental United States. It has a few limited ties to neighbors, not the broad interconnection other regions lean on in an emergency.
In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri forced days of outages across the state. Millions of customers lost power, many for extended periods in freezing temperatures. The failures were not only electrical: natural gas supply problems contributed, which matters if your backup plan depends on gas.
The more common Texas outage is shorter and local: a summer thunderstorm, a hurricane on the coast, equipment failure in a heat wave. A sound plan starts by deciding which of these you are actually protecting against.
Two seasons, two problems
Summer
Air conditioning dominates. A central system commonly draws 3 to 5 kW while running and needs a larger burst to start. Over a hot day it can use more energy than everything else in the house combined. On the other side of the ledger, solar production is at its best.
That makes summer backup mostly a question about cooling: the whole house on central air, or one room on a window unit or mini-split? The second option cuts the energy needed by a large factor.
Winter
In a home with gas heat, the electrical need in a winter outage is small: the furnace blower, the refrigerator, lights. In a home with electric resistance heat or a heat pump relying on backup strips, it is very large. Solar production is at its seasonal low, and storm weather lowers it further.
The Outage Simulator has Summer Comfort and Winter Essentials presets and a season setting for solar recharge so you can see both cases.
Your options
- Portable power station. For a few essentials over a few hours. No installation.
- Portable generator. Lowest-cost way through a multi-day outage if you can store and find fuel. Needs an electrician-installed inlet and interlock or transfer switch to power home circuits safely.
- Standby generator. Automatic, runs large loads, and keeps going as long as natural gas or propane is supplied.
- Home battery. Silent and automatic, best for short and medium outages and essential loads.
- Solar plus battery. Adds bill savings and daytime recharge, weather permitting.
- Hybrid. A battery for short outages and quiet nights with a generator for long ones.
Read Solar Battery vs Generator for how they compare, or run your own numbers in the Generator vs Battery calculator.
Sizing for a multi-day event
If the outage you fear is several days long, do the arithmetic before you shop. Essentials at 8 kWh a day for three days is 24 kWh delivered, which is two or three typical batteries with no recharge. A whole home at 30 kWh a day for three days is 90 kWh, which is not a realistic battery purchase for most households. That is the point at which fuel, or a hybrid, becomes the practical answer.
If you choose a generator, find out how long your fuel lasts. Natural gas depends on pipeline pressure holding. A propane tank holds a fixed number of days at your load. The calculator estimates both.
The Texas electricity market and your payback
In the deregulated parts of Texas you choose a retail electricity provider, and there is no statewide net metering. What you are paid for exported solar depends on the plan: some offer buyback credit, with terms and caps that differ widely, and some offer none. Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives set their own rules.
This has a direct effect on solar economics. Solar you use as it is produced is worth your full rate; solar you export is worth whatever your plan pays. The Solar Size Calculator lets you enter both and see how the payback moves.
Incentives
Texas has no statewide tax credit for home batteries or solar. Some utilities and retail providers offer rebates or pay for battery participation in demand-response programs. The federal Residential Clean Energy Credit does not apply to systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. Treat any incentive as something to confirm in writing, not as part of the base price.
Before you sign anything in Texas
- Read Texas Solar Contract Red Flags.
- Run any solar proposal through the Solar Quote Checker.
- Ask every installer which circuits are backed up, the continuous output in kW, and whether the system can start your air conditioner.
Common questions
Most of Texas is served by the ERCOT grid, which has only limited connections to the rest of the country, so it cannot import much power in an emergency. Texas also sees both extreme summer heat and occasional severe winter storms, and each stresses the grid and a home backup system differently.
Check both. Summer outages put the load on air conditioning, which is the hardest thing for a battery to run. Winter storms bring low solar production and, in homes with electric heat, very large heating loads. A system that looks fine in April can fall short in either extreme.
There is no statewide battery or solar tax credit. Some utilities and retail electricity providers offer rebates, solar buyback plans or payments for battery participation in grid programs. These vary by provider and change, so confirm current terms directly. The federal residential credit does not apply to systems installed after 2025.
Not statewide. In the deregulated parts of Texas, credit for exported solar depends on the retail electricity plan you choose, and buyback terms differ a great deal between providers. Municipal utilities and cooperatives set their own rules.