Governor Greg Abbott has signed two measures written to prevent future blackouts in the state. The Texas Department of State Health Services says 111 people died during record cold in February; almost five million people lost power.
Senate Bill 2 reduces the size of the ERCOT board of directors from 16 to 11. Eight of the members would be appointed by the legislature and Abbott instead of an ERCOT committee; all members must live in Texas.
"It is a completely independent board, now, whose 100 percent focus, whose entire goal, is making sure ERCOT stays strong, reliable, stable and affordable, continuing to grow our great economy," says State Senator Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills).
Senate Bill 3 requires power plants and transmission facilities to be able to function in extreme cold or heat.
"We call our solution 'weatherization' as opposed to 'winterization,'" Abbott says. "We want to make sure the solutions that have been provided address both summer weather and winter weather."
ERCOT and the Texas Railroad Commission will begin inspections to ensure pipes are heated and insulated. Plants found in violation face a fine of up to $1 million.
"There is now greater accountability in the system than ever before with sweeping reforms of both ERCOT and the Public Utilities Commission and more oversight by the Railroad Commission," Abbott says.
Regulators will be required to produce reports and recommendations to ensure reliability of the system. SB 3 will also establish an emergency alert system to notify residents when the grid is strained.
"A top priority we had this legislative session was to fix the power grid to prevent any other power grid failure in the future," Abbott says.
Hancock says testimony on the bills showed the grid is adding capacity. He says an additional 20,000 MW of solar power is coming online this summer.
"Our system continues to grow, and we continue to have investment that helps meet the demands we have on our load," Hancock says.
ERCOT says the state's reserve capacity has grown from 13% to a forecast 15.5% this summer. The organization says its forecast for this summer is 1.8% lower than initially planned because of delays in additional solar and wind projects. In 2018 and 2019, ERCOT says it "experienced historically-low planning reserve margins due to plant retirements."
Next year, Hancock says reserve capacity could grow to 28%.
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