‘The lights are going to stay on’: ERCOT, PUC officials said reliability of power grid is top priority, tests to begin next week

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) failed this winter and people died.

Winter Storm Uri rampaged across the state from Feb. 13-17 and the power grid collapsed, leaving millions in the cold. In addition to more than 200 deaths, people and businesses were left with huge power bills. The Texas power grid needed change.

That has happened, Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Chairman Peter Lake and ERCOT Interim President and CEO Brad Jones said during a press conference Thursday.

“The bottom line is, we’re doing business differently,” Lake said.

They said the system has been completely overhauled, with reliability now the top priority. ERCOT will reward power generators that guarantee power when it is needed most.

The first test of that will likely occur next week, Lake and Jones said. Weather forecasts call for extreme heat across the state. With more people living in Texas than ever before, the demand for power will skyrocket, they said, possibly hitting 74,000 megawatts, challenging the record of 74,800 MW set last summer.

An ERCOT projection issued in May said the summertime peak was forecast at 77,144 megawatts. Jones said the grid will meet and exceed demand, saying up to 80,000 MW would be available.

“The lights are going to stay on,” Lake said.

Customers won’t see huge increases in their bills, either, he said.

That’s because ERCOT has changed how it acquires power. It’s a process that is still ongoing, Lake and Jones said, but it will provide the needed cushion when demands spike. That was the assignment they were given when both agencies had their leadership removed after the winter debacle.

Lake is the former chairman of the Texas Water Development Board. Gov. Greg Abbott picked him to run the PUC, which oversees ERCOT, on April 12.

Jones had been ERCOT’s senior vice president and chief operating officer between April 2013 and October 2015 and had served as president and CEO of the New York Independent System Operator, a for-profit corporation that operates the state's bulk electricity grid, from October 2015 to October 2018.

The ERCOT board dismissed Bill Magness and five board members resigned. In May, Jones returned to ERCOT, a nonprofit corporation that administers electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers and 90% of the state’s electric load.

ERCOT released a “Roadmap to Improving Grid Reliability,” on July 13, listing 60 improvements to Texas power grid. Jones and Lake said 20 have already been accomplished.

According to a release, the roadmap includes:

• Taking a more aggressive operating approach. ERCOT is bringing more generation online sooner if it is needed to balance supply and demand. The grid operator is also purchasing more reserve power, especially on days when the weather forecast is uncertain.
• Requiring CEO certifications. After a rule change, all market participants who own or operate generation resources and/or transmission/distribution power lines will be required to submit a letter signed by their CEO twice a year certifying their companies have completed their weatherization preparations to protect the electric grid for the summer and winter seasons.
• Adding new requirements for generation owners. ERCOT is proposing a new market rule that requires generators to provide operational updates more frequently.
• Assessing on-site fuel supplies. ERCOT is reviewing the need for on-site fuel supplies for some generators.
• Performing unannounced testing of generation resources. This testing helps verify that generators have provided accurate information about their availability.
• Addressing transmission constraints in Rio Grande Valley. ERCOT and the PUC are initiating a process to address RGV transmission limitations and provide increased market access for resources in the Valley. This will improve reliability for customers during normal conditions and high-risk weather events.

Lake and Jones said conservation is still going to be a “tool in our conservative toolbox.” It might mean people are asked not to run their dishwasher when they get home from work or to draw their blinds and curtains to try to keep their homes cool.

“It's something that is used across the country, across the world,” Jones said. “During ERCOT’s conservation alerts in June, there were also conservation alerts on the West Coast, the East Coast and in Chicago.”

But Jones and Lake said that doesn’t meant ERCOT won’t be able to meet any demands put upon it by extreme weather conditions. That might be hard for some people to believe, they admitted, but it’s a promise they intend to keep.

“We need a cushion of extra reserves going into the hottest part of summer,” Lake said. “We have no room for error.”