Texas and ERCOT
Home Power Planning for Texas
SentryVolt's tools work anywhere in the United States. Texas gets extra depth, because the ERCOT grid, the retail electricity market and the weather make planning here different.
What is different here
A grid largely on its own
ERCOT has only limited ties to neighboring grids, so it cannot lean on them much in a statewide emergency. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 showed what that can mean.
You choose your retail plan
In deregulated areas there is no statewide net metering. What exported solar is worth depends on the plan you pick, which changes solar payback more than almost anything else.
Two hard seasons
Summer backup is about air conditioning. Winter backup is about low solar output and, in all-electric homes, heating. A plan should be checked against both.
Run the tools with Texas in mind
Enter a Texas ZIP and the calculators start from Texas assumptions for electricity price and solar production. Then make them yours.
Summer and winter outages
Use the Summer Comfort and Winter Essentials presets, and the season setting for solar recharge.
Outage Simulator →Your buyback plan
Enter the export credit from your retail plan and see what it does to solar payback.
Solar Size Calculator →A proposal on the table
Check price, production and financing before you sign.
Solar Quote Checker →Not built yet: live ERCOT grid conditions and utility-by-utility buyback data. We will add them when we can source them reliably, not before.