ERCOT, PUC, and deregulation got us here

[Guest Lobo]

So what if we tell Dan Patrick that the ice storm attempted to use the girl's locker room while it was here in Texas last week?  

[TwiceHorn 31535]

2 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

No, there's not an argument like that being made. But again, I've tried really hard to point out there are two completely separate businesses and industries, and only one is responsible for any of the misfortune of the last two weeks. Generalizing "Energy" is a big part of the problem here. 

To put make another crude comparison, it would be like talking about how the medical industry has failed and all the lost lives because of Covid, as if THAT's the problem. Or perhaps to blame the medical industry for the loss of lives for those that eat an unhealthy diet?

There's really three, although two can be closely intertwined, depending.  First is power generation, which is independent of local grids/providers, which is independent of power sellers or REPs.  In many cases, the power generation and local grid/actual provider are one and the same, or close to it, e.g. Vistra/Luminant/Oncor or Reliant. In some cases, the REP and the local grid/actual provider are the same, as when you have a city utility.

In any event, they are regulated/deregulated at those three levels representing different vertical aspects of the business.

So, yeah, the retail providers/sellers of electricity were deregulated, separately from the power generators, and separately from the local grid providers.  At certain times, deregulation of the Oncors has meant they spent nothing on trimming trees leading to excessive mechanical power outages in ice storms.

[SydneyCarton 48169]

1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

There's really three, although two can be closely intertwined, depending.  First is power generation, which is independent of local grids/providers, which is independent of power sellers or REPs.  In many cases, the power generation and local grid/actual provider are one and the same, or close to it, e.g. Vistra/Luminant/Oncor or Reliant. In some cases, the REP and the local grid/actual provider are the same, as when you have a city utility.

In any event, they are regulated/deregulated at those three levels representing different vertical aspects of the business.

So, yeah, the retail providers/sellers of electricity were deregulated, separately from the power generators, and separately from the local grid providers.  At certain times, deregulation of the Oncors has meant they spent nothing on trimming trees leading to excessive mechanical power outages in ice storms.

I ignored TDSPs (oncor, Centerpoint) because they are highly regulated. 

[elfenix 34332]

At certain times, deregulation of the Oncors has meant they spent nothing on trimming trees leading to excessive mechanical power outages in ice storms.

Planting oaks under utility lines is a bad idea but this seems excessive:

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

dallas msm 10pm survey

full aggy

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

the lack of energy in this thread is shocking

+++

damn

‘Too little, too late’: Calls grow for PUC chairwoman’s resignation as hearing into Texas power outages concludes

Public Utility Commission chairwoman DeAnn Walker was grilled by lawmakers. Following the hearings, calls began for her resignation.

By James Barragán and Robert T. Garrett

12:33 AM on Feb 26, 2021 CST

Updated 8:20 p.m. throughout.

AUSTIN — Lawmakers are calling for the resignation of the chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission after two days of hearings into the failures that left millions of Texans without power in freezing cold temperatures last week.

Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, was among the loudest voices calling for DeAnn Walker’s resignation, saying she had failed to exert regulatory authority within the Public Utility Commission to avoid last week’s power outages.

“After two days of testimony, it is clear to me that there was a dereliction of duty and that the people of Texas deserve nothing less than for Commissioner Walker to resign immediately,” Anchía said in a statement Friday. “Her inability to even muster an apology to Texans who endured freezing temperatures without heat or power and resulted in loss of life is inexcusable.”

Several other lawmakers have called for Walker’s resignation. Late Friday, Anchía and seven other lawmakers joint-authored a letter to Walker asking for her resignation.

Those lawmakers included: Republican Lyle Larson of San Antonio and Democrats Eddie Lucio III of Brownsville, Ana Hernandez of Houston, Abel Herrero of Corpus Christi, Donna Howard of Austin, Oscar Longoria of Mission, and Ron Reynolds of Missouri City. All except Larson sit on the committees that heard Walker’s testimony Thursday night.

Before that letter, GOP Reps. Jared Patterson of Frisco and Jeff Leach of Plano along with Democrats Chris Turner of Grand Prairie and Armando Walle of Houston had already called for Walker’s resignation.

Walker, who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott and makes $201,000 a year, was grilled for hours Thursday by House and Senate lawmakers about the failures in the state’s energy system last week.

Lawmakers were irked that Walker said her commission had no authority to regulate the energy system -- when in fact the Legislature had given it explicit power to do so following a previous winter storm in 2011 that also led to rolling blackouts.

Anchía had one of the key moments of Thursday’s hearings when he took Walker to task for denying that the commission had that power. He pointed to state laws that gave the PUC regulatory authority over the state’s energy market structure, previously passed laws that clarified that authority, and the commission’s own mission statement.

Walker -- who advised Abbott on regulated industry matters before he named her to the PUC -- agreed with Anchía that the documents he pointed to gave the commission regulatory authority. She said she had made errors in handling last week’s power outages.

“Do you think the public deserves an apology from the PUC?” Anchía asked.

When Walker did not immediately respond, Anchía interjected, “The fact you’re hesitating is astonishing.”

By that night, Frisco’s Patterson had seen enough.

“PUC Chair (at least) must resign,” he said on Twitter. “I have zero confidence after today’s hearings; and by the line of questioning of my colleagues, I believe most if not all agree with me.”

Leach said the hearings had reinforced his beliefs about oversight failure and said ERCOT CEO Bill Magness and the other two PUC commissioners should resign. ERCOT, short for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, is a nonprofit corporation that manages the state’s power grid.

“A necessary step so we and our constituents can be confident the right leadership is in place to ensure this never happens again in Texas,” Leach said.

PUC Commissioners Arthur C. D’Andrea and Shelly Botkin also make $201,000 a year. Magness, who was also questioned by lawmakers for hours Thursday, makes $803,000 a year.

ERCOT has been at the center of criticism from the public and state officials since last week’s outages, and six of its board members have resigned. But the PUC, which oversees it, largely had escaped criticism until Thursday’s hearings.

On Friday, the commission announced it was starting to make rules to respond to the failures that caused last week’s power outages. One would create standards for power plants and energy providers to withstand extreme weather events; the other would deal with emergency operations for electric services.

But Anchía called it “too little, too late.”

“Because PUC failed to act, the Legislature is now going to take over this process,” he said.

Stars of the crisis

On Friday, spokesmen and regulators of the Texas oil and gas industry said natural gas producers, processors and transporters were the star performers of the crisis.

“We did our job better than anybody else in the state,” said Railroad Commission Chairwoman Christi Craddick, speaking of natural gas companies her agency regulates. “There was heat going to homes of people that had gas at home.”

Right before the winter storm, natural gas accounted for 19% of the electricity being produced for Texas’ grid, said former Sen. Todd Staples, a Palestine Republican who heads the Texas Oil and Gas Association. At the height of the arctic blast, gas provided “more than two-thirds of the energy mix,” he said.

“Natural gas carried the load during this energy crisis, without doubt,” he said.

From the pipeline side, an executive of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners -- whose chief Kelcy Warren is a major GOP donor -- said that it took all recommended steps after a 2011 blizzard to ready its pipelines.

Pipelines are naturally insulated as they rest in the ground and never freeze, but products passing through them can be affected by extremely cold temperatures, explained Grant Rueckle, Energy Transfer’s vice president for government affairs. Companies use special equipment and techniques to warm what’s flowing, Staples and Rueckle said.

“Our pipelines never stopped operating during the winter storm as of last week,” Rueckle noted.

He acknowledged he couldn’t speak for the rest of his industry.

Pattern of blame

The testimony continued a pattern that developed Thursday in which the power industry blamed natural gas for the energy system’s failure, and vice versa.

Several lawmakers noted a lack of coordination among the agencies that regulate different parts of the energy market. The PUC oversees ERCOT and the electric utility industry. The Railroad Commission oversees natural gas and oil.

Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, pitched a state energy agency that could oversee all energy players and coordinate them during catastrophic events. But his idea was greeted with skepticism from industry witnesses and lawmakers wary of overregulation.

“I would defer the decision to this body,” said John Paris, president of Dallas-based Atmos Energy’s MidTex division.

House members sparred over whether the Legislature should require weatherization of not just electricity generating plants, but associated systems that bring natural gas to the generators.

Former Speaker Tom Craddick, a Midland Republican who is Christi Craddick’s father and has strong personal and political ties to the oil industry, suggested that Democratic colleague Donna Howard of Austin was off base in suggesting a requirement.

Staples also noted his industry likely would oppose a weatherization mandate and would want to decide themselves how best to prepare.

Regulation was a difficult and often frustrating subject for lawmakers.

Beaumont Democratic Rep. Joe Deshotel asked Christi Craddick if her agency could mandate backup power systems for natural gas providers. She replied: “‘We don’t think we have the authority to mandate what kind of compressor stations they have.”

House members also questioned why scores of natural gas companies had failed to have their facilities deemed “critical infrastructure,” which would make them less likely to lose power in an emergency, along with hospitals and the like.

They were polite with Christi Craddick, whose father was sitting with them on the dais.

Noting that more than 100 companies hadn’t registered before the blackouts started early on Feb. 15, Fort Worth GOP Rep. Charlie Geren pleaded with Christi Craddick to “get the word out to your members.”

As the hearings wound down late Friday, lawmakers seemed nervous about the potential high costs of last week’s winter storms and whether Texas residents would be stuck paying the bill.

Asked by Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, how much the winter storm would cost Atmos, Paris said he expected similar costs to CenterPoint Energy, which estimated costs around $2.5 billion.

When Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, asked if residential customers would foot that bill, Paris responded that they would not see $1,000 bills but the cost would be spread out over time.

Also Friday, the city of Denton filed a lawsuit against ERCOT to prevent what the city called an “unconstitutional use of public funds.” The city owns and runs an electric provider called Denton Municipal Electric and fears that, given the recent spike in wholesale energy prices, it will be on the hook for bills that some other utilities - including private ones -- have said they can’t pay.

[DonkeyCigars 143]

From the files of “we all saw this coming”: @ndawg

Electric firm Griddy loses access to Texas grid, customers shifted to rivals.

 

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas’s grid operator on Friday shut Griddy Energy LLC’s access to the state’s power network for unpaid bills and shifted its 10,000 customers to other utilities, as new signs of a financial crisis rose after a state-wide blackout.

Griddy was the power marketer that sold consumers electricity at wholesale rates, which rose to $9,000 per megawatt hour as cold weather struck the state last week. Unable to cope with demand, utilities cut power to 4.3 million residents as temperatures fell below freezing.

Grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) “effectively shut down Griddy,” the electricity marketer said in a statement on its website. Requests for further comment were not returned.

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by DonkeyCigars

[Fudge Nuggets 19221]

On 2/26/2021 at 12:03 PM, washparkhorn said:

agree - it's a Byzantine Rube Goldberg machine if that 1.5 percent number is correct (I understand Sydney was just ballparking).  Markets save money through efficiency (the current gold standard, until it isn't). 

 

That shit fake af.

[Blotto 23574]

Quote

Texas's largest and oldest electric power cooperative on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court in Houston, citing a disputed $1.8 billion bill from the state's grid operator.

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc is one of dozens of electricity providers facing enormous charges stemming from a severe cold snap last month. The fallout threatens utilities and power marketers who collectively face billions of dollars in blackout-related charges, executives said.

Unusually frigid temperatures knocked out nearly half of the state's power plants in mid-February, leaving 4.3 million people without heat or light for days and bursting water pipes that damaged homes and businesses. Brazos and others that committed to provide power to the grid and could not, were required to buy replacement power at high rates and cover other firms' unpaid fees.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bankruptcy-brazoselectric-texas-outag-idUSKCN2AT1FE

[SydneyCarton 48169]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bankruptcy-brazoselectric-texas-outag-idUSKCN2AT1FE

So this is going to be interesting. Honestly, I don't know why they field for Bankruptcy as opposed to just suing ERCOT and the PUC. Why even claim bankruptcy?

So this is a Municipal (read: regulated utility) where customers don't have choice in retail electricity. I imagine this is going to set a precedent for how the state has to handle this shit in short order, because this isn't like your guy in Houston going out of business. This is basically saying "The only store in town isn't going to be a store anymore" and you can't just run 40 minutes up the road to get your power from the next nearest outpost. 

[Dahobbs 17682]

19 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

So this is going to be interesting. Honestly, I don't know why they field for Bankruptcy as opposed to just suing ERCOT and the PUC. Why even claim bankruptcy?
 

You get an immediate stay from any collection efforts. Suit against ERCOT or other entities can still be filed, but with protection against any collection efforts. It also provides a nice bit of leverage in negotiations to get a bill reduced. 

[Blotto 23574]

24 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

You get an immediate stay from any collection efforts. Suit against ERCOT or other entities can still be filed, but with protection against any collection efforts. It also provides a nice bit of leverage in negotiations to get a bill reduced. 

Yeah my guess was the leverage it gives due to the protection against collection efforts. lawsuits will drag out in court forever. 

[Bookman 4642]

And the bankruptcy gives them more leverage.

[Pig Bellmont 8738]

Any system that permits three years’ worth of charges during a single week of (failed) service is broken. 

[tx 3 putt 77413]

4 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Any system that permits three years’ worth of charges during a single week of (failed) service is broken. 

 

depends which side of the table you're sitting on 

[TwiceHorn 31535]

7 hours ago, Dahobbs said:

You get an immediate stay from any collection efforts. Suit against ERCOT or other entities can still be filed, but with protection against any collection efforts. It also provides a nice bit of leverage in negotiations to get a bill reduced. 

I was reading they were highly leveraged before this all happened. I don't think they're as concerned about energy creditors as much as commercial/corporate ones.

I have the impression that they are neither very competitive because they are somewhat sheltered from the market, but also insufficiently regulated.

Also, they have 30GW of capacity and while they serve a large area, it's mostly rural-ish.  I'm not sure how they became a net consumer in this.  I guess maybe they were one of the bigger perpetrators of lost capacity.

Edited March 1, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

damn yesterday

spoilered for whiners

pitchforks and torches

Spoiler

Besieged chairwoman of Texas’ top utility regulator resigns in wake of state power outagesA growing chorus of lawmakers, including Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, had sought PUC chair DeAnn Walker’s resignation. Patrick and others have also called for the ouster of ERCOT CEO Bill Magness.

[Image: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, shown presiding over the Texas Senate on Jan. 13, has called for the resignations of the top official at each of two entities, the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. Though DeAnn Walker at the PUC and Bill Magness at ERCOT are charged with overseeing electricity in Texas, Patrick said their misjudgments led to “tragic loss of life” and property damages in the deadly double-snowstorm debacle that left more than 4 million state residents shivering in the cold two weeks ago.]

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, shown presiding over the Texas Senate on Jan. 13, has called for the resignations of the top official at each of two entities, the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. Though DeAnn Walker at the PUC and Bill Magness at ERCOT are charged with overseeing electricity in Texas, Patrick said their misjudgments led to “tragic loss of life” and property damages in the deadly double-snowstorm debacle that left more than 4 million state residents shivering in the cold two weeks ago.(Lynda M. Gonzalez / Staff Photographer)

By Robert T. Garrett and James Barragán

12:51 PM on Mar 1, 2021 CST

Updated at 2:55 p.m. to include statements from ERCOT and office of House Speaker Dade Phelan and at 3:49 p.m. to reflect Walker’s resignation and at 4:45 p.m. to include comment from Luke Metzger of Environment Texas.

AUSTIN — The chairwoman of the state’s utility regulator resigned Monday following calls for her ouster from a growing number of lawmakers including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the most powerful officeholder in the Legislature, who blamed her for the days-long power outages in the state last month.

DeAnn Walker, who led the Texas Public Utility Commission and was heavily criticized last week during legislative hearings for failing to prepare utility providers for last month’s power failures, notified Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday of her resignation, which is effective immediately. Her resignation came within hours of Patrick’s demand.

Walker, who made $201,000 a year as chairwoman, said she accepted responsibility for her role in the power outages but called on other responsible parties to do the same. She said the electric grid’s failure was not caused by one individual or group and that many people and companies contributed to the situation the state faced during the winter storm.

“I believe others should come forward in dignity and duty and acknowledge how their actions or inactions contributed to the situation,” Walker said in her resignation letter.

“The gas companies, the Railroad Commission, the electric generators, the transmission and distribution utilities, the electric cooperatives, the municipally owned utilities, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and finally the Legislature all had the responsibility to foresee what could have happened and failed to take the necessary steps for the past ten years to address the issues that each of them could have addressed,” she wrote.

Walker lamented the harsh treatment she received from lawmakers while testifying at hearings but said she acted with the best of intentions and used her best judgment to prepare for and respond to the crisis.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who appointed Walker and the other two commissioners to the PUC, thanked her for her work. She had served on the commission since 2017. Walker had also spent 15 years working for CenterPoint Energy and had been on the PUC’s staff as an assistant general counsel and an administrative judge.

“Our focus is to continue working collaboratively with the Legislature on reforms to our power system and look forward to passing lasting and meaningful solutions to ensure these tragic events are never repeated,” Renae Eze, an Abbott spokeswoman wrote in a statement.

Dallas Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Democrat who grilled Walker during her testimony, said she had failed in her regulatory duty.

“The Public Utility Commission, led by Gov. Abbott’s hand-picked appointees, was at best negligent in oversight of ERCOT,” he said in a statement. “It is their agency’s mission to protect Texans and ensure they have access to reliable electricity when they need it most, yet families were left out in the cold. We need bold action to prevent this catastrophe from ever happening again.”

“Texans still await her apology,” he added.

Pressure had built over the weekend for Walker’s resignation, following her testimony at legislative hearings last week. She drew ire from lawmakers who said she had not taken proactive steps to prepare the state for the winter weather.

Patrick calls for resignations

On Monday, Patrick, who leads the Senate, became the highest ranking GOP official to call for Walker’s resignation. He also called for the resignation of Bill Magness, the chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the nonprofit that oversees that state’s power grid for more than 23 million Texans.

Patrick called for their ouster, saying their misjudgments led to “tragic loss of life” and property damages in the deadly double-snowstorm debacle that left more than 4 million state residents shivering in the cold two weeks ago.

Walker and Magness, president and chief executive of ERCOT, should step down because of three huge failings, Patrick said in a written statement. It referred to Magness as “the CEO.”

“The lack of adequate preparation by both the ERCOT CEO and the PUC chair prior to the storm, their failure to plan for the worst-case scenario and their failure to communicate in a timely manner dictates they are not the ones to oversee the reforms needed,” said Patrick, a Republican who presides over the GOP-controlled Senate.

Beyond what has become a customary bill of particulars about the commission and the council’s failure to get electricity generators to weatherize their plants and erratic communication with the public during the Feb. 15-20 crisis, Patrick cited personal beefs that Walker and Magness incorrectly testified last week that they’d given state leaders such as Patrick a full heads-up about the gravity of the looming weather event.

“Both the Chairman and CEO publicly testified they had informed state leadership, including me, about the seriousness of the winter storm,” Patrick said.

“In fact, as they both admitted to me the day after the hearings, their testimony was not accurate. They did not provide me with information regarding the potential catastrophic grid-threatening danger of the storm before the morning of February 15, and, based on the questions that were asked in the House and Senate investigation committees, I don’t believe that information was provided to any other state lawmakers.”

Leslie Sopko, a spokeswoman for ERCOT, said the nonprofit is aware of Patrick’s call for Magness’ resignation.

“Given the recent resignations of several ERCOT board members and the current composition of the ERCOT Board of Directors, our Corporate Secretary will be working with the current, remaining members to consider this request,” Spoko said in a statement. “Mr. Magness will continue to work with the Texas Legislature and any state agencies on investigations of the recent winter storm and its reform of ERCOT.”

ERCOT board

More than half of the board’s 16 seats are currently vacant, following a slew of resignations last week. Walker’s resignation leaves the board with just seven sitting members, including the embattled Magness, who is an ex-officio member.

He makes $803,000 a year as ERCOT CEO.

In addition to Patrick, 15 state representatives, including three Republicans, had called for Walker to resign. Gov. Greg Abbott has called for the entire ERCOT leadership, including Magness, to step down.

[Image: With temperatures already falling into the single digits homeless person sleeps in the doorway of the Majestic Theater as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)]

NewsWill Texas ever figure out how many people died in the winter storm?

By Krista M. Torralva

A spokesman for House Speaker Dade Phelan said discussions about changes will come at a later time.

“It’s clear that serious changes need to be made and those conversations will be had, but we are in the midst of a crisis at this moment,” said Enrique Marquez, a spokesman for Phelan. “Texans across the state are picking up the pieces from this disaster, and we are focused now on recovery and what the House can do this session to ensure this never happens again.”

In Harris County, the commissioners court voted 3-2 along party lines, to call for the resignation of all three PUC commissioners. The commissioners court also expressed its support for bills at the Legislature to prevent future wide-scale power failures and exploring opportunities to join power grids outside of Texas’.

State officials are trying to get a complete death toll from the icy weather and power and water outages, which brought almost all of Texas to a standstill for several days, as some residents grew desperate and endangered themselves by burning furniture and other fuel to stay warm.

Authorities initially suspected at least 40 deaths were caused by the winter storm, The Associated Press reported, and the number is likely to grow. Doctors know many of those who died were victims of the storm. But proving it will take months.

Meanwhile, Brazos Electric Cooperative, the state’s largest rural electric cooperative, filed for bankruptcy on Monday because of more that $2 billion of power costs it sustained over seven days as its generators ground to a halt. Other electricity-related entities also may collapse financially, and the homes of thousands of Texans are believed to have been damaged.

Patrick said Magness and Walker, who both testified at hurry-up hearings by House and Senate committees last week, couldn’t even offer a road map for prevention.

“Our state senators repeatedly asked for their analysis and suggestions regarding what could have been done differently and what needs to be done going forward to prevent a similar problem in the future,” he said. “The Chair and the CEO offered few ideas.

“Frankly, I was shocked by their failure to respond.”

[Image: DeAnn Walker, chairman of the Public Utility Commission, testified in Austin on Feb. 25, 2021]

Politics‘Too little, too late’: Calls grow for PUC chairwoman’s resignation as hearing into Texas power outages concludes

By James Barragán and Robert T. Garrett

Walker and Magness are hard-working, “good” people, said Patrick, who may have been trying to soften his attack on especially Walker, who had worked in the governor’s office under Abbott and is a close friend of first lady Cecilia Abbott.

Not prepared

Patrick said Walker and Magness told top state officials “they were prepared the day before the storm hit in full force, but obviously they were not.”

The lieutenant governor cited Vistra Corp. chief executive Curt Morgan’s Senate testimony that on Feb. 10, a few days before the storm hit, “he had informed ERCOT that Vistra didn’t believe ERCOT had adequate power to address the arctic temperatures and precipitation that was projected. Morgan said he was surprised ERCOT did not respond to that information with any sense of urgency. ERCOT CEO Bill Magness testified the information was not delivered to him — a critical failure of Magness’ team.”

Patrick continued, “This was not the only misjudgment the PUC or ERCOT made. From their testimony it is clear they also did not consider the harsh freeze could shut down electricity generating power plants or that crews would not be able to make emergency repairs because roads would be impassable. Their projections did not accurately calculate the impact of diminished wind power that would be lost in the storm combined with the loss of 14,000 megawatts of power they knew would not be available due to power plants that had been shut down for maintenance. These two issues alone accounted for hundreds of thousands of homes being without power and threatened a statewide blackout.”

Patrick said “it is obvious ERCOT and the PUC simply did not anticipate the magnitude of the storm or the amount of power it would require.”

In communicating with the public, both officials failed, Patrick said.

“The ERCOT CEO and the PUC Chair did acknowledge their poor communication prior to the storm, but they did not seem to understand what a critical point that was,” he said. “As one example, ERCOT didn’t make a public call for Texans to conserve energy until the storm was upon us on February 14. Instead, Texans and lawmakers were told there might be ‘rolling brownouts’ of short duration along with the typical messages we get when cold weather comes to the state — cover your plants and keep your pets inside. In short, they hoped for the best instead of planning for the worst.”

Patrick, who has said he is putting a fix “on my shoulders,” added that the Legislature’s investigation “is just beginning.”

Lawmakers “will mandate reform of ERCOT and ensure the stability of the grid,” he said. “I remain committed to making sure this problem is fixed so that we are prepared to face a power challenge like this should a major storm happen again.”

With Walker’s resignation, state officials should focus on what they need to do to ensure the problems that the winter storms exposed are fixed, said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas.

“Chairman Walker needed to go, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that her departure changes anything about the fundamental problems that led to the blackouts,” he said in a written statement. “Electric and gas companies ran roughshod over Texas consumers during the blackouts and we’re just going to keep repeating history if the Governor and the Legislature don’t have the guts to stand up to the powerful, fix our broken electric system and build a cleaner and more resilient grid.”

[Image: The electricity grid failures that left millions of Texans shivering and without water for nearly a week have scrambled not only the Legislature’s agenda but the political calculus for next year’s elections. GOP state leaders such as Gov. Greg Abbott, shown Feb. 19, have displayed anxiety over the fallout, and anger over being surprised. (screenshot)]

PoliticsElectricity debacle has upended Texas Legislature’s agenda. Will Abbott, other GOP officials pay in 2022?The electricity grid failures that left millions of Texans shivering and without water for nearly a week – and as many as scores of people dead – have scrambled not only the Legislature’s agenda but the political calculus for next year’s elections. GOP state leaders have displayed anxiety over the fallout, and anger over being surprised.

By Robert T. Garrett

Robert T. Garrett, Austin Bureau Chief. Bob has covered state government and politics for The Dallas Morning News since 2002. Earlier, he was a statehouse reporter for three newspapers, including the Dallas Times Herald. A fifth-generation Texan, Bob earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. He covers Gov. Greg Abbott, the state budget and CPS and foster care.

[email protected] /bob.garrett.39 @RobertTGarrett

James Barragán. James Barragán covers Texas politics for The Dallas Morning News. He has covered immigration, public safety and voting rights and has traveled on assignment to the U.S. Supreme Court and Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Before joining The News in 2017, he worked for the Austin American-Statesman and The Los Angeles Times.

[email protected] /JamesBarraganNews James_Barragan Featured

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Besieged chairwoman of Texas’ top utility regulator resigns in wake of state power outages

[Image: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, shown presiding over the Texas Senate on Jan. 13, has called for the resignations of the top official at each of two entities, the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. Though DeAnn Walker at the PUC and Bill Magness at ERCOT are charged with overseeing electricity in Texas, Patrick said their misjudgments led to “tragic loss of life” and property damages in the deadly double-snowstorm debacle that left more than 4 million state residents shivering in the cold two weeks ago.]

 

[brakeman 28422]

hypothermia.

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

don't worry, wheels and dana are going to get to the bottom of it with SUBPOENA POWER

[huge 3795]

On 2/26/2021 at 2:08 PM, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Texas Monthly is also going in without lube:

 

 

Please disperse, nothing to see here.

[Captainant 27764]

2 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

don't worry, wheels and dana are going to get to the bottom of it with SUBPOENA POWER

Or he'll deflect by opening the state early and plunging us into another COVID outbreak!

[Guest Lobo]

Well since Abbott is going full Trump today, I have taken the liberty of preparing his defense to any inquiries about his political appointees role in any of these energy issues.

"We have so many outages because we have more houses!  Other states don't have as many people, so they didn't report as many outages!  Don't you people get it?"  

[C-Man 27262]

Magness fired by the board tonight

[freyguy 4289]

Yay, we fixed it!

[Blotto 23574]

32 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Magness fired by the board tonight

Dude is probably thrilled he doesnt have to stick around and deal with the hassle of unfucking the system. 

[27-25 2055]

On 3/2/2021 at 9:14 AM, brakeman said:

hypothermia.

<GQP>Yeah, but what about the comorbidities?</GQP>

[jimmyjazz 46130]

The new right-wing talking point:  Biden is releasing hundreds of covid patients who entered the US illegally along the southern border.

Mind you, this story was hyped by Abbott just yesterday, which does lead one to ask "hey Guv'nor, if we are seeing a significant rising threat, why open everything up 100% and reverse the mask mandate?  Seems illogical.  Thanks in advance."

Dumbass.

Edited March 4, 2021 by jimmyjazz

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20488]

 

[horn4life 3783]

So... on top of fucking up the access to power. The ALL GOP Public Utility Commission didn't do what they should have and the citizenry got GOUGED for $16 BILLION extra just to add another layer of GOP incompetence to the misery. No wonder Abbott is willing to kill people to distract from his mess.

https://www.chron.com/politics/article/ERCOT-overcharged-power-companies-16-billion-for-16001160.php

[Captainant 27764]

9 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 

WITHOUT FUCKING CAUSE???? ARE YOU GODDAMN KIDDING ME?

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

that's rich

and his thunderdome dog-wag is not working very well.  was at the vet today, solid aggy pubs, and they are pissed off and not going along with it.

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

1 minute ago, Captainant said:

WITHOUT FUCKING CAUSE???? ARE YOU GODDAMN KIDDING ME?

oh absolutely.  if they list causes, then those have to be discussed.

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

3 minutes ago, horn4life said:

So... on top of fucking up the access to power. The ALL GOP Public Utility Commission didn't do what they should have and the citizenry got GOUGED for $16 BILLION extra just to add another layer of GOP incompetence to the misery. No wonder Abbott is willing to kill people to distract from his mess.

https://www.chron.com/politics/article/ERCOT-overcharged-power-companies-16-billion-for-16001160.php

meant to quote this re: that's rich

[horn4life 3783]

21 minutes ago, Captainant said:

WITHOUT FUCKING CAUSE???? ARE YOU GODDAMN KIDDING ME?

Seems fucking crazy doesn't it.  Instead he managed the system EXACTLY AS IT WAS DESIGNED by Abbott and the GOP.

So the reality is he was fired as a scapegoat and without any cause other than political cover for Gov. Abbott.

[cactusflinthead 27602]

 

[TwiceHorn 31535]

1 hour ago, horn4life said:

Seems fucking crazy doesn't it.  Instead he managed the system EXACTLY AS IT WAS DESIGNED by Abbott and the GOP.

So the reality is he was fired as a scapegoat and without any cause other than political cover for Gov. Abbott.

Yeah. as far as I can tell, ERCOT has very little ability to make anyone do anything or change any laws or rules, so they did do pretty much exactly what they are intended to do:  ride herd over a goat rodeo with their collective thumb up their ass because they have no real power.

Taking it out on ERCOT deflects blame from where it belongs.

[jimmyjazz 46130]

10 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah. as far as I can tell, ERCOT has very little ability to make anyone do anything or change any laws or rules, so they did do pretty much exactly what they are intended to do:  ride herd over a goat rodeo with their collective thumb up their ass because they have no real power.

Taking it out on ERCOT deflects blame from where it belongs.

I said that a couple of weeks ago and got blasted on multiple fronts (hey-o).  Blaming the tool for bad workmanship is the fault of the carpenter.

[Ghost of LL 15539]

14 hours ago, horn4life said:

So... on top of fucking up the access to power. The ALL GOP Public Utility Commission didn't do what they should have and the citizenry got GOUGED for $16 BILLION extra just to add another layer of GOP incompetence to the misery. No wonder Abbott is willing to kill people to distract from his mess.

https://www.chron.com/politics/article/ERCOT-overcharged-power-companies-16-billion-for-16001160.php

Hotwheels should've waited to repeal the mask mandate until after this came out.  This is going to shift the story right back to the reality of how badly Texans got fucked during the storm.

[Bookman 4642]

12 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I said that a couple of weeks ago and got blasted on multiple fronts (hey-o).  Blaming the tool for bad workmanship is the fault of the carpenter.

Yeah, I'm certainly no expert, but it appears to me like everything worked exactly like it was designed to.

[Biff Tannen 45734]

12 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I said that a couple of weeks ago and got blasted on multiple fronts (hey-o).  Blaming the tool for bad workmanship is the fault of the carpenter.

As my friend would always say when we would play nintendo and player 2 would blame it on the controller not working, "it's not the arrow, it's the Indian".

[BearSchlong 8114]

15 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

 

Paywall.

Edited March 5, 2021 by BearSchlong

[cactusflinthead 27602]

42 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

Paywall.

Argle bargle. Stupid dmn

Edited March 5, 2021 by cactusflinthead

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

damn

Spoiler

By Dave Lieber

4:37 PM on Mar 4, 2021 CST

The rest of the U.S. now sees in the clearest terms the high price we Texans pay for our anti-regulatory culture.

They saw us suffer through days of blackouts. They saw bursting pipes and cities without water. They saw how some of our top state officials prefer to play political angles, even go on vacation, rather than act as true leaders.

This unsettling saga in the energy capital of America offers its share of Ripley-like believe-it-or-not vignettes. Here are some collected by The Watchdog:

Industry witnesses only

Surprise! Let’s start with a quick compliment. I applaud the Texas Senate Business & Commerce Committee for its two long days and nights last week of lengthy public hearings. This was uncharacteristic of the Texas Legislature to drill down and talk about our electricity system. It’s been years.

But there was something missing from the hearing. Out of 28 witnesses on the list assembled by chairman/State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, not one represented a consumer group. Inexcusable and unforgiveable, but then Hancock is unabashedly pro-business, and my expectation for him to help consumers like you and me is nil.

New PUC chair

Do you know who Arthur C. D’Andrea is?

He’s a lawyer who is your new chairman of the Public Utility Commission, on which he’s served since 2017. (Remember I took the P away from the UC because it doesn’t care about the public.)

D’Andrea was promoted by Gov. Greg Abbott to the top (p)UC job after chairwoman DeAnn T. Walker on Monday was forced to resign. State lawmakers were horrified by her feckless testimony before them the previous week.

Abbott wasted no time cleaning house. No wait. The governor didn’t clean house. He appointed Walker’s sidekick.

Now Abbott must replace D’Andrea.

Watchdog to governor: Appoint someone without ties to lobbyists, the electricity industry, your donors or a former or current staff member in your office. Go outside your bubble and appoint a smart consumer who will look out for the interests of 29 million Texans. Surprise us.

Now she tells us

In her resignation letter, Walker listed all the guilty parties and asked them to accept responsibility for the historic foul-up, as she said she did.

She wrote, “The gas companies, the railroad commission, the electric generators, the transmission and distribution utilities, the municipally-owned utilities, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and finally the Legislature.”

She continued, “All had responsibility to foresee what could have happened and failed to take the necessary steps for the past 10 years to address issues that each of them could have addressed.”

Notice who she left out? Her own (p)UC and Gov. Abbott, who appointed her. Coincidentally, they are the two most deserving of blame.

Paxton’s cheap trick

How pathetic to watch embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sue Griddy, the now-shut wholesale electricity rate dealer. It’s a cheesy effort for a headline.

Griddy has been around for several years, and nobody in authority complained that it was selling electricity at unbelievably low rates. Where was Paxton before this? Missing in action.

A 2019 warning

Speaking of Griddy, in news releases from 2019, Griddy promised that its plan to sell electricity to consumers at wholesale prices would launch a revolution that would change the balance of power in favor of consumers. Customers loved paying about half as much for electricity compared to the rest of us.

Then came the 2019 summertime price jumps and we saw how that could backfire. Prior to that, I received no Griddy complaints, but that changed. I warned readers and shared a Bloomberg News report: “It’s a record that has turned the Lone Star State into the most expensive place to buy power in all of America’s major markets.”

The Watchdog tries to save you money.

Deregulation origin story

Let’s travel back in time to the late 1990s when Texas lawmakers wanted to deregulate the electricity market. There was one particular energy company that was one of the chief architects of the plan and dominated lobbying efforts to break up the traditional monopolies.

But as Texas lawmakers approved the new system in 1999, this company was headed towards bankruptcy and eventually closed.

The company in question?

Enron.

Eventually, then-Gov. Rick Perry appointed a former Enron executive to chair the (p)UC.

No surprise then when the (p)UC’s trajectory swung wildly in favor of utilities, and not the public. It’s a trajectory that Perry and then Abbott supported wholeheartedly.

Revolving door

Call it a good ole boys network, but don’t forget the girls, too. The revolving door in the Texas regulatory system is one of the ways regulators protect the industry.

With Walker’s resignation, only two (p)UC commissioners remain -- D’Andrea and Shelly Botkin, who previously worked as director of corporate communications and government relations for ERCOT, the Texas electrical grid operator.

Walker worked for 15 years at CenterPoint Energy -- the Oncor of South Texas. She served as the company’s director of regulatory affairs.

Former (p)UC chairman Barry Smitherman, who served 10 years on the body and was chairman from 2007 to 2011, now sits on the board of CenterPoint. After leaving the (p)UC, he served on the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates natural gas, not trains.

Out of towners

The fact that hardly anybody knew that several ERCOT board members lived out of state is an indicator of how little scrutiny all of us devoted to ERCOT. Me, too. Just saying.

Seconds away?

At first, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness said the state power grid was “seconds” away from implosion. Then we heard it was four minutes and 37 seconds. Hey, let’s throw a bunch of numbers out there.

Reminds me of Three Mile Island nuclear plant disaster, which happened 42 years ago this month. I lived in Pennsylvania at the time, and it was scary.

Magness, paid more than $800,000 in salary, was fired by the remaining ERCOT board members Wednesday night. ERCOT’s website shows eight board vacancies after several non-Texans have resigned. The board fills its own vacancies. Must be nice.

40 seconds

San Antonio TV station KSAT reported that the week before the storms, ERCOT board members spent 40 seconds of a 2 ½ hour meeting discussing the impending winter storm.

ERCOT CEO Bill Magness told board members that “a little bit of winter weather” was coming.

Lower kWh rates?

The next time you hear someone say our electricity rates are lower because of deregulation, mention the story that appeared last week on the front page of the pro-business Wall Street Journal. Texans, according to their independent study, have overspent $28 billion on electricity since deregulation went into effect.

‘Hitting the jackpot’

Don’t call Dallas Cowboys General Manager Jerry Jones a loser -- at least not in the gas fields. His Frisco-based Comstock Resources took advantage of storm-related price spikes to sell gas at “super premium prices,” according to CEO Roland Burns.

Burns told investors the cold weather was “like hitting the jackpot.”

He later apologized to Texas lawmakers during his testimony, saying his comments were inappropriate and insensitive.

Nobody watching

Now-disgraced (p)UC chairwoman Walker apparently didn’t like people looking over her shoulder. I previously revealed how she led the movement to shut down the (p)UC’s important Oversight and Enforcement division. But she also ended the PUCs relationship with another independent monitor, the Texas Reliability Entity. She and her board cancelled that contract four months ago, claiming it was a waste of money.

Population boom

In 2019, I asked this question in a Watchdog column: “Is ERCOT prepared to handle the continued growing population of Texas? With millions more expected, Texas, the energy state, ought to stop bragging about how wonderful it is to have its own independent power grid.”

The bragging has stopped.

There you go. Believe it or not.

 

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

chron

Spoiler

• Fired ERCOT leader refuses more than $800,000 severance

Politics

ERCOT overcharged power companies $16 billion for electricity during winter freeze, firm says

Mitchell Ferman, ERIN DOUGLAS, The Texas Tribune

March 4, 2021Updated: March 4, 2021 3:09 p.m.

Facebook Twitter Email Comments

 

[Image: Bill Magness, President and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), testifies as the Committees on State Affairs and Energy Resources hold a joint public hearing to consider the factors that led to statewide electrical blackouts, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, in Austin, Texas. The hearings were the first in Texas since a blackout that was one of the worst in U.S. history, leaving more than 4 million customers without power and heat in subfreezing temperatures.]

Bill Magness, President and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), testifies as the Committees on State Affairs and Energy Resources hold a joint public hearing to consider the factors that led to statewide electrical blackouts, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, in Austin, Texas. The hearings were the first in Texas since a blackout that was one of the worst in U.S. history, leaving more than 4 million customers without power and heat in subfreezing temperatures.Eric Gay/AP

"ERCOT overcharged power companies $16 billion for electricity during winter freeze, firm says" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas made a $16 billion error in pricing during the week of the winter storm that caused power outages across the state, according to a filing by its market monitor.

Potomac Economics, the independent market monitor for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees ERCOT, wrote in a letter to the Public Utility Commission that ERCOT kept market prices for power too high for nearly two more days after widespread outages ended late Feb. 17. It should have reset the prices the following day.

That decision to keep prices high, the market monitor described, resulted in $16 billion in additional costs to Texas power companies. The news of the overcharging was first reported by Bloomberg.

In Texas, wholesale power prices are determined by supply and demand: When demand is high, ERCOT allows prices to go up. The grid operator was directed by the PUC during the storm to set wholesale power prices at $9,000 per megawatt hour — the maximum price. Raising prices is intended to incentivize power generators in the state to add more power to the grid. Companies then buy power from the wholesale market to deliver to consumers, which they are contractually obligated to do.

Because ERCOT failed to bring prices back down on time, companies had to buy power in the market at inflated prices.

RELATED: CenterPoint looking into billing issue that alerted customers they owe over $200K

The error will likely result in higher levels of defaults, wrote Carrie Bivens, a vice president of Potomac Economics, the firm that monitors the grid operator. She said the PUC should direct ERCOT to remove the pricing intervention that occurred after outages ended, and allowing them to remain would result in “substantial and unjustified” economic harm.

Retail power providers have been in financial distress across Texas since the storm, as many were forced to buy power on the wholesale market at extremely high prices.

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc., Texas’ largest power cooperative, has already filed for bankruptcy protection after incurring $2.1 billion in combined charges owed to ERCOT, according to court documents filed on Monday.

Many retail power providers complained in filings to regulators that generators of electricity, which were unable to produce enough power during the storm, profited and left retail companies scrambling.

“The ERCOT market was not designed to deal with an emergency of this scale,” wrote Patrick Woodson, CEO of ATG Clean Energy Holdings, a retail power provider based in Austin, to the Public Utility Commission. The pricing failure, he wrote, “has pushed the entire market to the brink of collapse."

RELATED: The heads of ERCOT's board of directors don't even live in Texas

Bivens wrote that while she recognizes that retroactively revising the prices is “not ideal,” correcting the error will reflect the accurate supply and demand for power during the period after the outages.

The recommendation “will not result [in] any revenue shortfalls for ERCOT’s generation as the corrected prices will cover the generator’s as-offered costs,” she wrote. “We recognize that revising the prices retroactively is not ideal.”

A spokesperson for ERCOT was not immediately available to comment.

Kenan Ogelman, the ERCOT vice president of commercial operations who testified during a Texas Senate committee hearing on Thursday, was not asked by state senators about ERCOT’s $16 billion mistake. Sen. Kelly Hancock, Republican of North Richland Hills who chairs the Business and Commerce committee, did not indicate what action he or senators would take on the various financial ripple effects following the winter storm.

“There are financial concerns — let’s put it that way — that we have to address,” Hancock said.

 

[cactusflinthead 27602]

Spoiler

 

The rest of the U.S. now sees in the clearest terms the high price we Texans pay for our anti-regulatory culture.

They saw us suffer through days of blackouts. They saw bursting pipes and cities without water. They saw how some of our top state officials prefer to play political angles, even go on vacation, rather than act as true leaders.

This unsettling saga in the energy capital of America offers its share of Ripley-like believe-it-or-not vignettes. Here are some collected by The Watchdog:

Industry witnesses only

Surprise! Let’s start with a quick compliment. I applaud the Texas Senate Business & Commerce Committee for its two long days and nights last week of lengthy public hearings. This was uncharacteristic of the Texas Legislature to drill down and talk about our electricity system. It’s been years.

But there was something missing from the hearing. Out of 28 witnesses on the list assembled by chairman/State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, not one represented a consumer group. Inexcusable and unforgiveable, but then Hancock is unabashedly pro-business, and my expectation for him to help consumers like you and me is nil.

New PUC chair

Do you know who Arthur C. D’Andrea is?

He’s a lawyer who is your new chairman of the Public Utility Commission, on which he’s served since 2017. (Remember I took the P away from the UC because it doesn’t care about the public.)

D’Andrea was promoted by Gov. Greg Abbott to the top (p)UC job after chairwoman DeAnn T. Walker on Monday was forced to resign. State lawmakers were horrified by her feckless testimony before them the previous week.

Abbott wasted no time cleaning house. No wait. The governor didn’t clean house. He appointed Walker’s sidekick.

Now Abbott must replace D’Andrea.

Watchdog to governor: Appoint someone without ties to lobbyists, the electricity industry, your donors or a former or current staff member in your office. Go outside your bubble and appoint a smart consumer who will look out for the interests of 29 million Texans. Surprise us.

Now she tells us

In her resignation letter, Walker listed all the guilty parties and asked them to accept responsibility for the historic foul-up, as she said she did.

She wrote, “The gas companies, the railroad commission, the electric generators, the transmission and distribution utilities, the municipally-owned utilities, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and finally the Legislature.”

She continued, “All had responsibility to foresee what could have happened and failed to take the necessary steps for the past 10 years to address issues that each of them could have addressed.”

Notice who she left out? Her own (p)UC and Gov. Abbott, who appointed her. Coincidentally, they are the two most deserving of blame.

Paxton’s cheap trick

How pathetic to watch embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sue Griddy, the now-shut wholesale electricity rate dealer. It’s a cheesy effort for a headline.

Griddy has been around for several years, and nobody in authority complained that it was selling electricity at unbelievably low rates. Where was Paxton before this? Missing in action.

A 2019 warning

Speaking of Griddy, in news releases from 2019, Griddy promised that its plan to sell electricity to consumers at wholesale prices would launch a revolution that would change the balance of power in favor of consumers. Customers loved paying about half as much for electricity compared to the rest of us.

Then came the 2019 summertime price jumps and we saw how that could backfire. Prior to that, I received no Griddy complaints, but that changed. I warned readers and shared a Bloomberg News report: “It’s a record that has turned the Lone Star State into the most expensive place to buy power in all of America’s major markets.”

The Watchdog tries to save you money.

Deregulation origin story

Let’s travel back in time to the late 1990s when Texas lawmakers wanted to deregulate the electricity market. There was one particular energy company that was one of the chief architects of the plan and dominated lobbying efforts to break up the traditional monopolies.

But as Texas lawmakers approved the new system in 1999, this company was headed towards bankruptcy and eventually closed.

The company in question?

Enron.

Eventually, then-Gov. Rick Perry appointed a former Enron executive to chair the (p)UC.

No surprise then when the (p)UC’s trajectory swung wildly in favor of utilities, and not the public. It’s a trajectory that Perry and then Abbott supported wholeheartedly.

Revolving door

Call it a good ole boys network, but don’t forget the girls, too. The revolving door in the Texas regulatory system is one of the ways regulators protect the industry.

With Walker’s resignation, only two (p)UC commissioners remain -- D’Andrea and Shelly Botkin, who previously worked as director of corporate communications and government relations for ERCOT, the Texas electrical grid operator.

CenterPoint Energy -- the Oncor of South Texas. She served as the company’s director of regulatory affairs.

Former (p)UC chairman Barry Smitherman, who served 10 years on the body and was chairman from 2007 to 2011, now sits on the board of CenterPoint. After leaving the (p)UC, he served on the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates natural gas, not trains.

Out of towners

The fact that hardly anybody knew that several ERCOT board members lived out of state is an indicator of how little scrutiny all of us devoted to ERCOT. Me, too. Just saying.

Seconds away?

 

At first, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness said the state power grid was “seconds” away from implosion. Then we heard it was four minutes and 37 seconds. Hey, let’s throw a bunch of numbers out there.

Reminds me of Three Mile Island nuclear plant disaster, which happened 42 years ago this month. I lived in Pennsylvania at the time, and it was scary.

Magness, paid more than $800,000 in salary, was fired by the remaining ERCOT board members Wednesday night. ERCOT’s website shows eight board vacancies after several non-Texans have resigned. The board fills its own vacancies. Must be nice.

40 seconds

San Antonio TV station KSAT reported that the week before the storms, ERCOT board members spent 40 seconds of a 2 ½ hour meeting discussing the impending winter storm.

ERCOT CEO Bill Magness told board members that “a little bit of winter weather” was coming.

Lower kWh rates?

The next time you hear someone say our electricity rates are lower because of deregulation, mention the story that appeared last week on the front page of the pro-business Wall Street Journal. Texans, according to their independent study, have overspent $28 billion on electricity since deregulation went into effect.

‘Hitting the jackpot’

Don’t call Dallas Cowboys General Manager Jerry Jones a loser -- at least not in the gas fields. His Frisco-based Comstock Resources took advantage of storm-related price spikes to sell gas at “super premium prices,” according to CEO Roland Burns.

Burns told investors the cold weather was “like hitting the jackpot.”

He later apologized to Texas lawmakers during his testimony, saying his comments were inappropriate and insensitive.

Nobody watching

Now-disgraced (p)UC chairwoman Walker apparently didn’t like people looking over her shoulder. I previously revealed how she led the movement to shut down the (p)UC’s important Oversight and Enforcement division. But she also ended the PUCs relationship with another independent monitor, the Texas Reliability Entity. She and her board cancelled that contract four months ago, claiming it was a waste of money.

Population boom

 

In 2019, I asked this question in a Watchdog column: “Is ERCOT prepared to handle the continued growing population of Texas? With millions more expected, Texas, the energy state, ought to stop bragging about how wonderful it is to have its own independent power grid.”

The bragging has stopped.

There you go. Believe it or not.

NOTE: My updated guide on how to shop for electricity in Texas is now available online. Go to my website at www.DallasNews.com/watchdog and look for the story “How you should shop for cheap electricity in 2021? Very carefully.”

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by cactusflinthead
Longcat spoilered

[BearSchlong 8114]

lol just texted a former V&E partner that was tasked with cleaning up Enron's shit with that blurb of how the whole dereg was pushed by Enron.

"of course they were.  Evil motherfuckers"

I wonder how many former Arthur Anderson folks work for ERCOT?

[TwiceHorn 31535]

There's a couple of different "species" or types of deregulation going on here.

First, in 1996, "we" dismantled public electric utilities in favor of private and quasi private power generation and distribution companies.  THIS is the deregulation that's killing us now.  These are the fuckers that refused to spend money to prepare for the weather.

In 2002, we "deregulated" retail energy.  Which decoupled the party you paid for electricity from the party whose wires went into your house or who generated the electricity that went into your house.  This created REPs, which have almost nothing to do with the power outages and may be actual victims of the whole thing, like Griddy, which is a special-case REP.

Enron was big in the kind of energy trading that underlies the second deregulation, that is, the fungible kWh divorced from the wires and the generators.  Electricity as an abstract commodity.  They almost "invented" that.

Enron or Ken Lay may have had a role in both deregulations, but it is most easily identified with the second, 2002 deregulation, which is not really at the root of our problem here.

Not to defend Enron, but there's a conflation of the two phases of deregulation of electric power in Texas, and only the earlier one seems to be at fault here.

[BearSchlong 8114]

Enron used the trading desk to fraudulently manufacture "bookable" revenue, but they were literally a cult whose mantra was deregulate everything.

Meanwhile, over here in Beaumont our capacity market kept us warm while the rest of Texas froze.

[elfenix 34332]

5 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

The rest of the U.S. now sees in the clearest terms the high price we Texans pay for our anti-regulatory culture.

 

can you spoiler this longcat repost of something that hagbard posted just two posts above this?

[cactusflinthead 27602]

10 minutes ago, elfenix said:

can you spoiler this longcat repost of something that hagbard posted just two posts above this?

My only defense is it was lunch and in a hurry.