Texas governor Greg Abbott asks Legislature to investigate electric reliability
Gov. Greg Abbott is calling for reforms to the entity that manages the flow of Texas’ electricity as power outages continue across the state.
Abbott on Tuesday asked the Legislature to investigate the Electric Reliability Council of Texas in light of the large-scale outages declaring the issue an emergency item.
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has been anything but reliable over the past 48 hours,” Abbott said in a statement. “Far too many Texans are without power and heat for their homes as our state faces freezing temperatures and severe winter weather. This is unacceptable.”
Later, in an interview with KTRK in Houston, Abbott said he thinks ERCOT leaders should resign.
There have been millions of outages since Sunday night as freezing temperatures continue across the state.
ERCOT called for rotating outages Monday as power generating units went offline amid the cold weather, with the goal preventing uncontrolled, cascading outages on the electric grid.
But for many, the outages have spanned hours and even days, leaving residents wondering when they’ll regain electricity.
Texas lawmakers have expressed concerns over the outages in the state.
House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, announced Tuesday that the chamber’s State Affairs and Energy Resources committee would hold a joint hearing on Feb. 25 to review what led up to megawatts of power generation being dropped from ERCOT’s system and the outages that followed.
“We must cut through the finger-pointing and hear directly from stakeholders about the factors that contributed to generation staying down at a time when families needed it most, what our state can do to correct these issues, and what steps regulators and grid operators are taking to safeguard our electric grid,” Phelan said.
The Senate’s Business and Commerce committee will also hold hearings related to the outage, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said.
“I share the frustration of every Texan regarding the loss of power during this winter storm,” Patrick said in a statement. “Millions of people without power during this arctic blast is life-threatening and unacceptable.”
The outages across the state raise questions about the reliability of Texas’ electric grid, particularly in extreme weather events, said State Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, a who chairs the state affairs committee.
State Rep. Craig Goldman, a Fort Worth Republican who chairs the Energy Resources Committee, said the joint hearing will provide an opportunity for Texans to “hear from industry officials, regulators, and grid operators to get an explanation and understanding of what went wrong and steps they are all taking to make certain this never happens again.”
ERCOT on Tuesday said some people should be able to get power back in the afternoon due to additional wind and solar power output and thermal generation.
“But the amount we restore will depend on how much generation is actually able to come online,” a tweet reads.
As of 4:40 p.m, there were more than 3 million outages in the state, according to poweroutage.us. ERCOT has said decisions about power availability locally are made by the area’s transmission companies.
Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, has described the outages as being necessary to balance the supply and demand, while keeping power in areas with critical facilities like hospitals.
State Rep. Jeff Cason, R-Bedford, on Twitter criticized a “systematic failure of government.”
“The Texas power grid has been in need of vital reform for years, yet lawmakers have prioritized issues of far less importance,” he said in a separate tweet.
State Sen. Beverly Powell, D- Burleson, said she was part of a briefing call with ERCOT. On Twitter she expressed “outrage” over the outages and the “failure to effectively communicate with Texans,” calling for an investigation by the Legislature.
“Based on the call, it appears the best-case scenario may be enough power will be restored so true rolling blackouts will begin later today and tomorrow to give temporary relief,” she said on Twitter.
But the situation is fluid and weather conditions are expected to worsen, she cautioned.
“Everyone without power should prepare for the worst...,” Powell said, urging Texans to seek warming shelters if needed or shelter with friends and family with power.
Abbott announced five other emergency items during his state of the state address earlier this month. They include expanding broadband access and preventing cities from “defunding” police departments.
Legislative issues declared an emergency by the governor can be passed sooner than other bills.
The Texas Democratic Party said Abbott is shifting the blame to ERCOT as people continue without power.
“Please do not fall for Abbott’s tricks,” said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa in a statement. “The blame falls on Abbott. Texans deserve to know when Greg Abbott knew about this crisis, what his government did to prevent it, and why the response was inadequate. Texans deserve to know how we got into this situation and why our energy grid was not sufficient to keep us warm.”
On a call with reporters, ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness said a close look by policy makers at how the long-lasting outages can be avoided in the future is isn’t surprising.
“We’re happy to participate in that, and we’ll cooperate and hopefully be very involved in it, in whatever way we’re asked to by any of the policy or leadership folks that we report to,” he said.
Asked what they need from the state to prevent the outages, Magness said that may become clearer as the emergency situation passes.
“I don’t have an ask,” he said. “I think we need to explain things. We need to take the questions, take the issues up and explain what’s happened over the past few days.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 12:07 PM.
