But after recent leadership shakeups at ERCOT and the PUC, it is state lawmakers who are now increasingly coming under pressure to pass substantial legislation that would protect the state from another power failure the next time inclement weather hits Texas. Jones expressed some caution about times that are dark and still, meaning when the sun isnt shining to produce solar power and when wind isnt blowing enough to produce wind energy. [20] The 1999 deregulation also dropped limits on rate increases. Jones hopes that once the state maps out all critical infrastructure in the grid by this September, "it will be much easier to track which facilities have to be weatherized to improve our overall reliability. Melissa Trevino of Houston is the Assistant Vice President for Power at Occidental Energy Ventures, where she leads the energy management team and oversees the power reporting and compliance group. "He brings the right combination of ERCOT knowledge and broad industry expertise needed to provide the stability and reliability that Texans expect and deserve.". Updated The legislation abolished the former system, in which power was both generated and consumed locally. [28], Texans outside the ERCOT-controlled grid had a different power experience. or. She has reported on several high-profile stories during her career at KSAT and specializes in trending news and things to do around Texas and San Antonio. Meanwhile, the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the natural gas industry, has required those providers to sign up as critical services whose own electricity won't be shut down during a blackout. SAN ANTONIO Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas were not expecting this summer to be quite so brutal. [16], Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT, was fired on March 4, 2021, for his role in the 2021 power loss incident. Copyright 2023 KSAT.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. The Texas Energy Reliability Council was established to ensure that the energy and electric industries in this state meet high priority human needs and address critical infrastructure concerns, and enhance coordination and communication in the energy and electric industries in this state. Lake declined to respond directly to the letter from senators during the House hearing Monday but said that the agency is grateful for feedback., I agree we need more dispatchable power, Lake said. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. ( ERCOT) is an American organization that operates Texas 's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, [3] [4] which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90 percent of the state's electric load. [21] Since deregulation, retail providers and power generators were unregulated, although regulations on transmitters continued to control the placement of electrical lines. [59][60][61][62] On February 23, ERCOT announced the resignation of five out-of-state board members effective the end of the board meeting the following day. Hydroelectric Conventional: 23,086 MWh; Confidential proposals were due April 9, and ERCOT received eight proposals that it is evaluating for Board consideration. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) board has selected a new CEO and president. ERCOT, Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Winter Storm Uri, Gina Hinojosa, Brad Jones, Greg Abbott, Austin Energy, blackouts, League of Women Voters, Texas Railroad Commission, Information is power. In a Monday committee hearing, lawmakers questioned whether a Public Utility Commission proposal to redesign Texas electricity market would lead to the building of more natural-gas-fired power plants. Supply and Demand. Public Utility Commission of Texas Chairman Peter Lake and Electric Reliability Council of Texas CEO Brad Jones will hold a press conference to discuss the readiness of the Texas power grid for the 2022 summer George Presses of San Antonio is Vice President of Fuel & Energy for H-E-B, where he has worked since 1998. The rule, if implemented, would punish those who failed to produce the power they promised with financial penalties. He has over 30 years of experience as a process engineer. Senate Bills 2 and 3 included a few key changes to the grid that experts said will begin to address some issues, such as requiring power companies to upgrade plants to withstand more extreme weather and creating a statewide emergency alert system. It also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for nearly 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. Does your plan guarantee new generation? asked state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi. (512) 463-2000, Office of the Texas Governor | Greg Abbott, Governor Abbott Appoints Six to Texas Energy Reliability Council. This spring, ERCOT forecasters predicted just a 5% chance that this summer's peak load demand would reach the levels it has. He has over 35 years of experience in the electric energy industry. AUSTIN, Texas -- The board overseeing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the independent nonprofit entity that operates and manages the electricity grid that covers much of. When lawmakers reconvene for another special session in the fall, some are hoping grid-related issues will be on the agenda. VP - Commercial Operations | Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Mr. Jones was elected by the Board to serve as interim President and CEO until the permanent position has been filled, up to a term of one year (pursuant to ERCOT Bylaws). Erin Douglas, Kate McGee and Jolie McCullough, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 20:02. Thats because we want to stay far enough away from a rolling outage scenario that were asking for it early, Jones said to the Houston Chronicle. While Magness was fired, Walker resigned after also coming under harsh criticism from lawmakers. In the weeks since the winter storm, both ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the regulatory body that oversees it, have been lambasted for failures in preparing for and responding to the storm. [52], The ERCOT organization is governed by a board of directors made up of independent members, consumers and representatives from each of ERCOT's electric market segments. In Texas, that would largely mean new natural-gas-fired plants. | We manage the flow of Texas' power supply. READ ALSO: ERCOT hearings continue in Austin. miles of transmission lines. After the power grid crisis during the February 2021 winter storm that left millions of Texans in the dark during dayslong power outages and caused hundreds of deaths, the Texas Legislature ordered the PUC to make several major changes, including requiring power plants to better prepare for very cold conditions and implementing a reliability standard for the states electricity market. Some key points in the plan include requiring CEOs of energy companies to sign a letter that their equipment is prepared to withstand inclement weather, incentivizing power plant operators to store reserve fuel onsite in case of emergencies and re-writing ERCOTs external communications materials to better inform the public about the state of Texas power supply. Jakob Rodriguez is a digital journalist at KSAT 12. [17] The board delivered a 60-day termination notice to Magness, who had been president and CEO since 2016. Other senators questioned why in June, two weeks after the regular legislative session ended, some Texas power plants unexpectedly went offline, spurring ERCOT to ask Texans to set thermostats higher during a heat wave to conserve energy. On Wednesday, Jan. 26, the League of Women Voters and state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, hosted the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' interim CEO Brad Jones on a "listening tour" to explain what's being done to prepare the grid for another winter storm. Your donation keeps our trusted reporting free and accessible for all Texans and during a legislative session when lawmakers are set to tackle issues from school choice for K-12 students to school safety improvements to changes in property taxes, its critical that Texans know what lawmakers decisions mean for their futures. TIS members adopted official operating guides for their interconnected power system and established two monitoring centers within the control centers of two utilities, one in North Texas and one in South Texas. The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved Vegas' selection Tuesday and he will begin his new position Oct. 1. With BESS, he says, if Austin were to endure the opposite of Uri a heat dome such as Portland experienced last summer, leading to scores of deaths solar would get us through. Texas's failure to prepare left the state vulnerable to winter-storm blackouts, including the major disaster that occurred ten years later in February 2021. The board said he would serve in those roles for the next two months. Dan Patrick had called for Magness and DeAnn Walker, then the head of the PUC, to resign. During the war, the grid was interconnected to other states and excess power generation was sent to industries on the Gulf Coast, providing a more reliable supply of electricity for production of metal and other material needed for the war.[19]. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. [8], As the ISO for the region, ERCOT dispatches power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and more than 610 generation units.[9]. [51][12], The PUC has primary jurisdiction over activities conducted by ERCOT. Trevino received a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from the Texas Tech University. Box 12428 San Antonio area in for two rounds of winter weather this weekend, These San Antonio-area schools have announced changes for Monday due to expected wintry weather, These San Antonio-area businesses have announced closures, delays on Monday due to inclement weather, Mondays vaccination appointments at Alamodome, WellMed clinics rescheduled due to expected wintry weather in San Antonio, Now is the time to prepare your vehicle, gather emergency supplies before wintry weather hits. The best way to say it is that before, operators had gotten comfortable standing at the edge of the cliff and looking down, and now we stand 10 feet back. "He is an experienced leader and. Its our 10th year participating in Amplify, and to celebrate, weve got $15,000 in matching funds from four generous Tribune supporters. [5] Disclosure: Texas Competitive Power Advocates has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. He is a 2017 graduate of the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas in Denton. [27] At 1:25a.m. on February 15, ERCOT began requesting blackouts from service providers. Lake said that the agency was simply moving forward with what the Legislature asked it to do last year with Senate Bill 3 but later said, We dont plan on operationalizing any market designs until we receive guidance from the Legislature.. Brad Jones, interim CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, expressed confidence in the state's grid heading into summer at a Tuesday press conference. [28] On February 16, electricity shortages caused the price of electricity to spike to over $9,000 per megawatt-hour (MWh),[27][29][30] whereas the week before, the lowest price of power had been less than $30 a MWh. ERCOT is prioritizing backup gas resources for generating plants: "If natural gas becomes unavailable, they can switch to the alternate fuel on-site. Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Brad Jones, Nate Murphy, George Presses, Edward Stones, Jon Taylor, and Melissa Trevino to the Texas Energy Reliability Council for terms at the pleasure of the Governor. by Mitchell Ferman Seems to me we asked you to do something, and youre doing it, he said. Double your gift when you give by 6 p.m. Thursday. The fastest-growing sources of power in fast-growing Texas are wind turbines and solar panels, which typically dont provide as much power during the winter months as during the summer. Jones said after ERCOT released an energy conservation notice on Monday, the demand was 2,500 megawatts lower than officials projected. Copyright 1981-2023 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved. P.O. The ERCOT region's all-time record peak hour occurred on July 20, 2022, when consumer demand hit 79,828 MW. Last week, senators from the Business and Commerce Committee, after hearing similar testimony from Lake, wrote a letter to PUCs commissioners expressing their concern that the PUCs proposal may fail to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 3 and would not guarantee that new generation will be built in a timely and cost effective manner., Also last week, Patrick held a press conference in which he called for legislation that would cause additional natural-gas-fired power plants to be built in addition to the PUCs proposed market changes. July 13, 20214 PM Central. Session in the fall, some are hoping grid-related issues will be on the agenda leader! 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