Federal regulators have opened an investigation into what caused the massive power outages across Texas. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) confirms that it will investigate together with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. FERC is the same agency that examined the last major winter power outage in Texas in 2011 and then offered recommendations to avoid a repeat in the future.
On Wednesday, a group of congressmen from North Texas sent a letter demanding responses from ERCOT, the agency that manages the state’s electricity grid. The letter asks what ERCOT did to prepare for this major storm.
Meanwhile, NBC 5 Investigates discovered new information showing, less than a week before the storm, ERCOT officials ensured that the state’s power plants were ready to withstand the elements, raising further questions about how such a massive system failure state energy could happen.
During the storm, ERCOT said that 40% of the state’s generators – four out of ten – were shut down. These generators account for 46,000 megawatts of energy, enough electricity to supply nearly 9.2 million homes.
“I think it’s safe to say that climate control efforts have failed, they haven’t been able to maintain capacity online during this extreme climate,” said Jesse Jenkins, an energy expert at the Center for Energy and Environment at Princeton University.
Jenkins said the key questions for investigators will include what the plant’s operators did to protect the equipment from the cold, and what ERCOT did to ensure that those plants were ready.
“And after the latest troubles and continuous blackouts in 2011, efforts should have been made to protect the system from the cold. And it is clear that these efforts were not up to the task, ”said Jenkins.
NBC 5 Investigates found records of ERCOT meetings on the ERCOT website showing, just five days before the storm, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness assured the group’s board of directors at a meeting: “We are ready for the cold times to come. on our way. ”
He said the agency had issued a warning to power plants to ensure they were prepared for the winter.
In September, ERCOT’s annual winter assessment, designed to ensure that the state is prepared, assured the public that there would be enough energy to meet peak demand this winter.
But then, when the biting cold arrived, dozens of power plants were shut down, putting millions of Texans in danger.
At a news conference on Wednesday, NBC 5 Investigates asked ERCOT CEO Bill Magness how trustworthy he and his agency can be after assuring the public that the state is prepared.
Magness responded by saying, “The people Texas people really need to trust to get us out of this crisis are those operators who are working 24/7 to make decisions that will keep the system safe.. “
“Guilt can be assessed very soon,” said Magness, “guilt will certainly be assessed.”
NBC5 Investigates also tried to contact Sally Talberg, chairman of the ERCOT board of directors, who oversees the agency. Talberg did not return the call. An ERCOT spokesman also said that no board member will be available for interviews because his priority is to restore power now.
ERCOT confirmed Wednesday that there are no mandatory rules to require mills to prepare for winter, only voluntary guidelines.
ERCOT says that power generation companies have incentives to be ready, because they cannot make money if they are unable to produce electricity.
A group representing power generators, Texas Competitive Power Advocates, issued a statement saying that power plants were in fact prepared for the winter and ready for the storm – but that the climate the state has seen is unprecedented.