Reforming ERCOT - Here’s one good idea and one bad idea
ERCOT reforms should add incentives to protect against another failure, not take them away.
Texans are weighing options for preventing another power outage in severe weather. (Photo Omar Vega / Al DIa)(Omar Vega)
Among the reforms to be put forward in the aftermath of last week’s storm, two seem most likely. Both have to do with preparing the system for severe weather. One is a good idea, the other is not.
The good idea is to add teeth to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Right now, ERCOT can only “suggest” best practices for winterizing generating plants based on standards set by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.
Actual rotating outages could begin, full power restoration still not known, ERCOT says
Rotating outages across neighborhoods is the best-case scenario, ERCOT leaders say.
Power crews work in a darkened apartment complex after a second winter storm brought more snow and continued freezing temperatures, and continuing power outages, to North Texas on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, in Richardson.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
The state’s power grid operators hoped rotating outages would actually begin by the end of Wednesday, calling it the “best case” so thousands of Texans aren’t shouldering entire outages.
That means some folks who held onto their power so far during the winter storm might have their electricity knocked out for short periods of time, while others might get stints of power, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Wednesday.