ERCOT President: We’re Ready for Winter

Winter is coming.

And this time ERCOT is ready.

At least that’s the message from Brad Jones, interim President and CEO of ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) carried into town as he spoke to the Rotary Club of La Grange Wednesday as part of what he’s calling a “Listening Tour” across the state.

He wanted to hear from local folks about what was happening here during the 2021 winter storm, and many local leaders were on hand to visit with him.

Jones admitted ERCOT’s reputation was “tarnished” by the events of last winter’s massive storm across the state that led to significant failures in the Texas power grid.

“Where did ERCOT fail the most?” Jones said. “The last 20 years ERCOT has not fought enough for reliability. Reliability has to be first.”

According to a study by the University of Houston:

• 69% of Texans lost electricity at some point during Winter Storm Uri for an average of 42 hours.

• 49% lost access to running water for an average of more than two days.

• Nearly one-third of people reported water damage in their home.

The latest figures show 210 people died from the winter storm (though many of those deaths were unrelated to power failures)

“This system was unlike anything I had seen in my lifetime, unlike anything my parents or my grandparents had seen in their lifetimes,” Jones said. “That last storm like this was in 1895, but the 2021 storm lasted longer.”

In Wednesday’s talk Jones talked about how every aspect of power generation in Texas was impacted during that winter storm – from wind turbines covered in freezing rain, coal piles frozen solid to blocked water intakes as a nuclear plant.

But he also pushed back on the media narrative that ERCOT didn’t do anything after winter storm blackouts in 2011.

Jones said the Texas power grid was better weatherized after those 2011 woes – just not enough.

“This 2021 storm was 10 degrees colder (that in 2011). We were not prepared for that,” Jones said. “Now we are.”

Jones spelled out three main focuses by ERCOT and Texas power providers to better keep Texas from experiencing something like this again:

1. They are weatherizing facilities to prepare for a “2021-style winter” and began inspecting facilities this month and fining those that don’t comply.

2. They are trying to improve power transmission plans to be able to cut power to places that don’t need it during emergencies and keep power on to places than do. Jones said currently 60-percent of places are considered critical infrastructure electricity-wise, but they’d like to get reevaluated to about 20-percent. That could conserve enough power to keep rolling blackouts from turning into long-term ones like last winter.

3. Finally, Jones said ERCOT has to be able to communicate better and coordinate better between various entities.

Jones’ visit to La Grange was part of that effort.