Lawsuits against ERCOT allege warnings about Texas grid issues ‘consciously ignored’
Two separate lawsuits have been filed against ERCOT, the company that manages Texas’ power grid and the American Electric Power Company, which transmits electricity in the state.
The latest lawsuit was filed Friday by the Dallas-based Fears Nachawati law firm on behalf of Corpus Christi resident Donald McCarley.
The suit charges that ERCOT and AEP failed to maintain and winterize their infrastructure for the anticipated spike in energy use and “failed to take corrective action once systems started to fail,” according to a release.
“The resulting widespread property damage from blackouts was caused by their negligence and gross negligence,” the release states. “In addition, the disruptions rendered private property unusable and amounted to an illegal ‘taking’ of private property by the government.”
The storm was “neither unprecedented, nor unexpected, nor unforeseen,” the lawsuit charges.
The lawsuit cites a 357-page federal report following the 2011 storm that occurred while North Texas was hosting the Super Bowl which spelled out steps to prevent future failures.
Such preventative measures, the lawsuit alleges, include installing heating elements around pipes and increasing reserve power available before storms. The release on the lawsuit also points out that power demands are often much higher during the summer.
“The emergency was caused solely by their failure to heed investigation findings from similar grid failures in 2011 and 1989,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit will test ERCOT’s position of sovereign immunity from claims, which guards government entities from lawsuits.
ERCOT’s immunity protection is currently being reviewed by the Texas Supreme Court.
The first known lawsuit against ERCOT was filed by a Fort Bend County couple on Thursday.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of McCarley, alleges ERCOT and the AEP “consciously ignored repeated warnings about weaknesses in the state’s power infrastructure and bear responsibility for property damage and business interruptions from recent catastrophic winter weather power outages.”
“Texas had practically identical failures in 1989 and 2011 that resulted in exhaustive reports and recommendations,” Fears Nachawati trial lawyer Patrick Luff said in a release. “This was an emergency solely because of a failure to plan and learn previous lessons.”
The suit was filed in Nueces County.
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 7:34 PM.
