The board overseeing ERCOT held an emergency meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the winter storm that paralyzed most of Texas last week. They apologized for the devastation caused by the power cuts and pledged to gather the facts to help lawmakers determine how to prevent it from ever happening again.
Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT, received questions from his own board about why this power outage was so severe and why the agency could not predict such a devastating outcome before the storm hit.
“I mean, we’ve seen something here that, you know, surpasses any extreme scenario,” said Magness.
In an online presentation to the ERCOT board, Magness showed slides with an updated analysis showing nearly half of the power generating units, 48.6%, in the state that was shut down at the height of the power outage.
All of this was caused by a weather system he described as greater than anything the agency’s forecasters had ever predicted, calling into question the forecasting models used to predict winter weather and the state’s power needs.
“This is the kind of thing that, you know, moves the goalposts, number one, so we need to know that we can see another February 2021, an event when we look at extremes,” said Magness.
Weather data from ERCOT shows that the Dallas / Fort Worth area was at or below freezing for more than 140 hours. That’s 40 hours longer than the 2011 winter storm that caused rolling power outages.
This time, power demand hit an all-time high as all types of power plants – and even natural gas lines to some factories – shut down in the cold, forcing ERCOT to order outages to avoid a much worse collapse of the whole . Energy system.
A graph presented at the meeting shows that Texas was less than five minutes from a power outage that could have paralyzed the power system for weeks or months.
Magness expressed his frustration at the meeting about how long it took for some power plants to be back online. The charts shared today showed that many were unable to restart for days and that this was the cause of such a devastating crisis with lost lives and damaged homes.
A board member today criticized Magness by saying he was not doing enough to warn the board of the possibility of a crisis before the storm hit.
“As a board member, I feel very frustrated that that didn’t happen,” said board member Jacqueline A. Sargent. “And I just wanted to make that statement.”
As NBC 5 Investigates first reported, ERCOT’s audio recordings show that Magness spent less than a minute discussing the approaching storm at the last board meeting, just five days before the storm arrived.
Today he apologized.
“I certainly could have done better to emphasize what was to come and I also had deeper communication with the board. So I understand your frustration, ”said Magness.
On Thursday he will receive more questions from lawmakers in the house and senate. The beginning of what some, including Senator of the State of Dallas Nathan Johnson, describe as the beginning of a fact-finding mission.
“It is certainly possible that ERCOT has made decisions or has not made decisions that it should have, and I have some information on that. But until I have complete information, I am not judging. There are many other players in this process, both private as well as public, ”said Johnson.
A fifth ERCOT board member resigned today, along with four others who announced their resignation yesterday, saying they wanted to avoid controversy about living in other states.