Power poles knocked down by Hurricane Beryl in Harris County, Texas (Sunrun) Hurricane Beryl wrecked Houston’s power grid last week, leaving millions reliant on slow grid repair efforts or limited supplies of diesel generators to keep food and medicine from spoiling and air conditioners running amid deadly heat. But in the sea of toppled power poles and darkened homes and businesses, islands of power and light remained intact. million generator plan. Enchanted Rock’s customers don’t just use their generators during outages, however. They also save money by using them to generate electricity on site to reduce their need for utility power throughout the several hundred hours of the year when the Texas grid is straining to meet power demand during heat waves or cold snaps — and when prices for grid power can skyrocket. Distributed gas generators like Enchanted Rock’s can keep providing power even when large-scale grid disruptions like those that left millions without power during Winter Storm Uri make it impossible for large-scale gas-fired power plants to do so. They can also be built in much smaller increments than conventional gas power plants, Schurr noted. That could make them a far more effective target for the billions of dollars that state lawmakers approved last year to bankroll large-scale gas-fired power plants in the name of protecting Texans from grid outages, he said. An H-E-B grocery store powered by an Enchanted Rock gas generator during Houston’s post–Hurricane Beryl grid outages. (Enchanted Rock) An Enchanted Rock generator installed next to an H-E-B grocery store in Houston. (Enchanted Rock) What about solar and batteries? Solar power isn’t just clean — it’s also increasingly the most cost-effective electricity source available. When the grid goes down, solar power can provide a portion of a site’s power needs while the sun is shining, and also charge batteries for use after the sun goes down. Today, most of the larger commercial customers that Enchanted Rock serves require too much power to make solar and batteries a cost-effective backup option, Schurr said. Households, on the other hand, can ​