Four ERCOT members resign after a power outage in Texas

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to date with the most essential Texas news.

Four board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the entity that controls and operates the electrical grid that encompasses much of Texas, will resign on Wednesday, according to a report to the Public Utility Commission.

Sally Talberg, Chairman of the Board; Peter Cramton, Vice Chairman; Terry Bulger, Chairman of Finance and Audit; and Raymond Hepper, chairman of the personnel and board committee, will resign at the end of the ERCOT board meeting Wednesday morning, according to the notice. All four of them live out of state.

Craig Ivey, who also lives outside of Texas, was about to fill a vacancy, but withdrew his application, according to the notice.

ERCOT board members had come under fire last week when it was reported that some of the board members did not live in the state. ERCOT officials said at a press conference last week that it had removed personal information about the directors from its website because the board members were being harassed.

The board has also been criticized for tackling last week’s massive power outages during a winter storm that killed dozens of Texans. More than 4.5 million customers were without power at one point last week.

Gov. Greg Abbott had called on ERCOT board members to resign in the wake of the crisis and said in a statement on Tuesday that he welcomes their resignation and promised to investigate the grid operator.

“I am happy to resign,” said Abbott. “The lack of preparedness and transparency at ERCOT is unacceptable. We will ensure that last week’s calamitous events are never repeated. “

Talberg, a former state-owned company regulator who served on the Michigan Public Utility Commission from 2013 to 2020, lives in Michigan. Talberg has served on various national, regional and national boards and committees in the fields of electricity, natural gas, oil, infrastructure and telecommunications. Cramton, a professor of economics at the University of Cologne and the University of Maryland, lives in Germany. Cramton has focused his research on electricity and financial markets. He has advised numerous governments and has been a member of the ERCOT Board of Directors since 2015.

Bulger worked in the banking industry for 35 years, including various positions at ABN AMRO Bank in Canada, Europe and the US, and lives in Wheaton, Illinois. A former trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice, Hepper retired in 2018 and worked for the grid operator that manages the New England power system and wholesale markets.

Ivey, whose nomination was approved by ERCOT members but awaiting final approval from the PUC, has retired after more than three decades of experience in the utility industry. He lives in Florida, according to an announcement from the ERCOT regarding his candidacy for the board. Most recently, he was the president of Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc., a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison Inc.

ERCOT representatives did not call back to request comment, but a statement said, “We look forward to partnering with Texas Legislature and thank the outgoing board members for their service.”

Fifteen directors are on ERCOT’s board of directors, including the four non-affiliated directors, whose resignation will be effective at the end of the meeting on Wednesday. The vacancies are not filled immediately.

In order for ERCOT to maintain its certification as an independent organization, the board of directors, which should consist of 16 members, should have five members completely separate from “any market segment”. Ivey would have been the fifth unaffiliated member.

“The chairman of the board, the vice-chairman of the board and both leadership roles of the committee chairmen will be vacant,” said the notice from lawyers representing ERCOT.