AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF) – The Texas legislature is investigating the handling of the state’s power grid during last week’s winter storm.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas forced widespread outages that left millions of Texans in the dark and cold amid the winter storm to prevent a system wide shutdown. ERCOT officials said the grid was not equipped to handle the unprecedented demand for energy amid bitter cold temperatures.
Curt Morgan with Vistra Corp testified that the state just wasn’t prepared for the bitter cold temperatures.
“We do a heck of a job in Texas around hurricanes, and our power plants are built to handle hot weather,” said Morgan. “Let’s be honest, they’re not built for the winter.”
Energy experts agreed that power plants statewide were not weatherized efficiently to handle temperatures below 10 degrees that came with last week’s storm. There wasn’t much debate over a need for better winterization of power generation in Texas.
Lawmakers probed energy leaders about ERCOT’s transparency ahead of the storm. Morgan said he didn’t believe ERCOT, or other agencies showed much urgency before the storm hit.
“When we see this kind of event and we think that we’re not going to have enough power, you would think that is something that someone should advise you guys or the Governor that this is coming, giving them a chance to prepare,” Morgan told the committees.
ERCOT CEO Bill Magness testified in the Texas Senate on Thursday and said there was concern communicated about a potential strain on the system. But lawmakers argued ERCOT should have stressed urgency and better alerted top elected officials.
Governor Greg Abbott said this week that the legislative session will not end until funding is secured and a plan is in place to ensure what happened last week regarding Texas energy never happens again.
The hearings continue Friday in the Senate.
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