Harris County should consider leaving the state’s main power grid after it failed to prevent widespread blackouts for more than half of Houston’s area residents last week, District 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said on Monday.
Garcia asked the Court of Commissioners to explore what authority he has to sever ties with the Texas Electric Reliability Council, which oversees the power grid that supplies power to the entire state except El Paso, parts of the Panhandle and a group of counties in the state. eastern Texas.
“This agenda item is intended to explore how we, in Harris County, can take responsibility for keeping residents safe, something the state has clearly shown it cannot be trusted to do on its own,” Garcia said in a statement.
Garcia, a Democrat who represents Harris County in the east, said the state failed to adequately protect its electricity infrastructure after widespread blackouts in 2011 exposed vulnerabilities to winter weather.
He suggested that the county could join the East Texas network, the Midcontinental Independent System Operator, which, unlike ERCOT, crosses state lines and is overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Liberty County, which borders Harris County to the east, is part of MISO. This network also suffered interruptions during the storm, when the demand for electricity overloaded the supply, but were less severe than those within the ERCOT system.
What capacity, if any, for Harris County to leave ERCOT is unclear. Jay Aiyer, assistant district attorney, said that such a move would almost certainly require legislative approval. As subdivisions of the state government, the commissar courts have few independent powers; they cannot even enact ordinances.
Aiyer said Harris County will also examine what actions, if any, the Legislature will take at this session to reform the ERCOT or the Public Utility Commission to prevent future blackouts.
CenterPoint Energy, which supplies electricity to the Houston region, declined to comment on Garcia’s proposal.
The Court of Commissioners will accept Garcia’s proposal Friday.