CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A man from Corpus Christi filed a lawsuit against Texas Electric Reliability Council – better known as ERCoT – American Electric Power Company, Inc. and AEP-Texas.
Donald McCarley filed the lawsuit in Nueces County, alleging negligence on the part of the defendants on several fronts: that he did not provide the necessary amount of energy necessary to successfully navigate the winter storm, and that the “outdated” equipment of AEP and AEP -Texas failed, depriving Texans of 45,000 megawatts of energy.
He is seeking damages, saying that ERCoT blackouts caused damage to his property and that the company knew that the blackouts would have that effect on its customers’ property.
ERCoT, AEP and AEP-Texas “could have increased electrical production capacity in Texas in the days and weeks before the February 2021 cold weather event, but they chose not to,” says McCarley.
The suit also states that AEP and AEP-Texas had the opportunity to weather and properly update “their generation, transmission and distribution facilities” to avoid the power grid failure that Texas residents experienced as of Sunday night “, but they consciously chose not to. “
McCarley says similar weather events in 1989 and 2011 should have prepared defendants for this storm, which he does not call “unexpected” or “unforeseen”.
According to the lawsuit, Texas’ energy demand peaked at 69,000 megawatts, which is also not uncommon. He also claims that in 2018, a demand of more than 65,000 was successfully handled.
He also claims that the state’s power grid regularly handles the use of 125,000 megawatts in the summer months – almost double this week’s demand.
The lawsuit also alleges that the lack of supply was also caused by the companies’ “outdated energy generators”.
This is a story in development, KRIS 6 News will bring updates as soon as we receive them.