In ERCOT, which operates Texas’s electrical grid, and many other independent system operators (ISOs) across the country, prices are the best proxy for grid stress. There are other proxies such as physical responsive capability (PRC), but prices are a better measure for most situations. For that reason, in order to prevent swings in prices and create more challenging grid conditions, an optimal environment is one in which the price does not swing wildly up and down. But that is traditionally what happens (see the graph below from last year’s Winter Storm Elliot).