Call on Harris County to get off the state power grid. Is that possible?

HOUSTON – Commissioner Adrian Garcia said Harris County should investigate the authority it has to leave the Texas Energy Reliability Council and that he will file a proposal in Commissioner’s court on Friday.

Among other things, Garcia said he will request “an opinion from the County Attorney on what powers the court or other elected county official must have under the Texas Constitution and Texas Statutes to remove the county from ERCOT’s catchment area.” “.

The ERCOT map, which covers most of Texas except for El Paso, parts of the Panhandle, and more than a dozen counties on the eastern edge of the state, has looked much the same for decades.

In the Houston area, Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston, Brazoria, and Montgomery counties are on the ERCOT map, while Jefferson and Liberty counties belong to another network controlled by the Federal Energy Reliability Council.

It has been that way for at least half a century, said Ed Emmett, who served formally as a Harris County Judge for more than a decade.

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“Can you imagine 254 counties in the state of Texas all starting to consider whether they wanted to be in ERCOT or some other system?” Emmett said. “That’s really not their job.”

Emmett’s home in the Houston area, on the ERCOT grid, lost power during last week’s winter storm. His cabin in Liberty County, on the MISO grid, lost no power.

“I think there are legitimate questions as to why some service areas had electricity and others didn’t,” Emmett said. “I find it very difficult to see a role for provincial commissioners here.”

State lawmakers do have a role, however, he said.

“The last time I checked, the lawmakers are all representing the same Harris County residents,” Emmett said. “That is going to be a political discussion about whether you are better regulated by the Public Utility Commission (which is ERCOT overseas) or by FERC.

Hypothetically, if Harris County could leave ERCOT, Emmett said it would then have to rebuild the power lines and other infrastructure

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Ed Hirs, Energy Fellow at the University of Houston, said the cost of that new infrastructure would be “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Garcia plans to submit his proposal on Friday, which will also include “formal approval” of a federal investigation into what he calls the Texas state’s “failures and shortcomings” during the winter storm.

He was not available for an interview on Tuesday.