A Corpus Christi resident filed a lawsuit against the Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT) on Friday, claiming that the grid operator should be held responsible after failing to adequately prepare for the winter conditions that left residents of the state without power in the last few days.
ERCOT and the American Electric Power Company, which operates the state’s generators, were cited as defendants. Claimant Donald McCarley claims that the entities were aware of the potential risk that a winter weather event posed to power grids, but did not increase capacity or attempt to make their infrastructure waterproof.
“This cold weather event and its effects on the Texas power grid were neither unprecedented, nor unexpected, nor unforeseen,” says the suit, noting that similar conditions in 1989 and 2011 resulted in continuous blackouts.
ERCOT representatives did not immediately return a request for comment.
Millions of Texas residents lost energy after sub-zero temperatures compromised Texas’s power grid. McCarley’s lawsuit argues that energy demands in the midst of low temperatures were much lower than those that exist during a typical summer.
ERCOT oversees 90% of the state’s electricity production.
Dallas-based law firm Fears Nachawati is representing McCarley in the lawsuit. McCarley is seeking unspecified damages.
“This was an emergency only because of a failure to plan and learn the previous lessons,” said Fears Nachawati attorney Patrick Luff in a statement.
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The previous Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation to determine how ERCOT responded to the crisis, as well as its emergency preparedness procedures.
“I am using the full scope of my constitutional powers to launch an investigation into ERCOT and other entities that have roughly handled this week’s extreme winter climate. While the Texans came together to get their communities through this disaster, they were left in the dark, “Paxton said in a statement. “We will get to the bottom of this power failure and I will tirelessly pursue justice for the Texans.”