ERCOT CEO Terminated After Deadly Winter Storm
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One of the biggest disasters was the lack of communication from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and its residents. Texans were kept entirely in the dark about the disaster that was happening right under their noses.
While temperatures began to fall below freezing and power began to trip off, Texans had no idea why and when they would get their electricity turned back on. Never in a million years would they have expected to be without a basic necessity like electricity more than a few hours, let alone days!
5 quit Texas electric council after freeze By MAY ZHOU in Houston | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-02-25 12:14
An aerial view of an electrical substation in Houston, Texas on Feb 21, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was anything but reliable when Texas was frozen over last week. The state s power grid overseen by ERCOT became so unreliable that 4 million people were left without power amid freezing cold for days. The winter storm and power outage have left at least 30 dead.
As public anger and questioning grew, five out-of-state ERCOT board members resigned on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, Bill Magness, ERCOT CEO, said that the grid was minutes away from a complete failure overnight on Feb 15. He outlined the magnitude of last week s crisis during a presentation to ERCOT s board of directors in which he gave a timeline of what went wrong.
ERCOT defends power outages amid Texas winter storm, says system was near collapse
Fort Worth Star-Telegram 2/25/2021 Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Feb. 24 Representatives from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas shed some light Wednesday on why millions were left in the dark last week.
As a winter storm covered much of the state, ERCOT the nonprofit that manages the state s power grid ordered controlled outages to prevent a statewide blackout.
But what were supposed to be rolling outages spanned hours and days for some Texans.
In the board s first meeting since the outages, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness began his presentation by acknowledging the devastation, including loss of life.