FERC to review Texas power outages

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) plans to conduct an exhaustive investigation into the power outages roiling Texas, while at the same time closing out a politically charged effort to improve the "resilience" of the electric grid.

The review will "get to the bottom of what happened" and determine how power outages could be avoided when extreme weather happens again, agency chairman Richard Glick said. FERC lacks jurisdiction over the grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), where millions of customers lacked service for days, but it can offer advice and adopt rules for power markets covering much of the US.

"People are literally dying, it is simply unacceptable," Glick said today during his first monthly meeting as chairman. "The short-term focus must be on restoring power to the grid. We also have a responsibility to ensure this does not happen again."

FERC is preparing its probe alongside its grid reliability counterpart, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, on a timetable that will be decided in part on how quickly officials can gather adequate information. The two agencies are hoping to avoid a repeat of a report they wrote on winter power outages in Texas and New Mexico in 2011, which Glick said sat on a shelf gathering dust after its voluntary recommendations were mostly ignored.

"I am prepared, if necessary, to support the imposition of new mandatory standards to make sure that electric generators and others are better prepared when weather strikes next time," Glick said. "And there will be a next time."

FERC today separately voted 4-1 to terminate a docket the agency began in 2018 to review how to improve the "resilience" of the electric grid.

Former US energy secretary Rick Perry, who previously had served as governor of Texas for more than 14 years, ordered FERC in 2017 to review a plan for bailing out struggling coal and nuclear plants. The move was widely viewed as part of former president Donald Trump's efforts to prop up the coal sector.

FERC rejected the proposal, opting instead to conduct the review to examine ways to avoid power outages.

Glick said the agency was still dedicated to supporting resilience and reliability but said it would be better to make those changes through proceedings that did not have the kind of politically baggage associated with the initiative. Trying to use the docket to pursue comprehensive new policies languished, in part because each electric grid FERC oversees faces unique threats and uses different mechanisms to ensure reliability.

"This docket has caused trouble because we have always had it hanging around as a potential source for action," Republican commissioner James Danly said. "Instead, what it has done, I think, is give false hope to people."

Republican commissioner Neil Chatterjee voted against terminating the docket, saying it was the correct vehicle for taking a serious and honest look at the issues. Chatterjee said he was heavily opposed to a coal bailout but said the agency should directly grapple with the issues raised by the docket and take concrete action.

Chatterjee yesterday argued that no one fuel source was to blame for the problems with Texas' power grid but suggested a reduction in Texas' reliance on coal may have contributed to the grid's vulnerability.

"Coal use is down dramatically," Chatterjee said in a televised interview. "Would those retired coal plans have been able to step up? We need to examine that."

By Chris Knight