Texas AG Expands Power Grid Investigation

[Elderberry]

Texas Scorecard by Jacob Asmussen March 8, 2021

“Hardworking Texans who pulled together to get their communities through this disaster deserve transparency and justice.”

As countless Texans continue to struggle as a result of last month’s historic winter storms and catastrophic power outages, the state’s top law enforcer is broadening his search for answers and is now investigating the monstrous spike of natural gas prices.

In a press release on Monday, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he’s issued a civil investigative demand to Intercontinental Gas Exchange, “a natural gas exchange that saw massive price increases during the February winter storm that swept through Texas.”

“The [Consumer Protection] Division believes that Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. may be in possession, custody, or control of documentary material relevant to an investigation of possible violations of [the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act] with respect to possible price gouging in the natural gas industry in the State of Texas during the month of February 2021,” read the investigative demand.

Paxton is requiring them to hand over documents related to the February storm, such as any communications with business participants about the “rapidly escalating natural gas prices” during that time, and any communications with government officials about the price investigation. Reports say that during the arctic storm, natural gas prices in various parts of Texas and the country soared by thousands of percentages.

More: https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-ag-expands-power-grid-investigation/

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Isn't Ercot supposed to be the entity that supervises the grid?

Why aren't they conducting this review instead?

Why have them at all if they sit on the sidelines?

I read where the Ercot head who recently was fired was making $870,000 per year as a state employee.  Seems a waste of good money for what should have been high dollar talent.

[thackney]

Isn't Ercot supposed to be the entity that supervises the grid?

More the day to day operations.  But this is about the Natural Gas Supply.

Why aren't they conducting this review instead?

If it was about the grid, it would be the PUC responsibility, as it has been.

“Power companies get exactly what they want”: How Texas repeatedly failed to protect its power grid against extreme weather
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/

E...xperts hired by the Texas Public Utility Commission, which oversees the state’s electric and water utilities, concluded that power-generating companies like Luminant had failed to understand the “critical failure points” that could cause equipment to stop working in cold weather.

In May 2014, the PUC sought changes that would require energy companies to identify and address all potential failure points, including any effects of “weather design limits.”...

...By the end of the process, the PUC agreed to soften the proposed changes. Instead of identifying all possible failure points in their equipment, power companies would need only to address any that were previously known....

[IsailedawayfromFR]

More the day to day operations.  But this is about the Natural Gas Supply.

Ercot has a lot more responsibility than just day to day business.

Here's an example news release from last year.
ERCOT report shows increasing reserves in coming years
Accelerated utility-scale solar growth boosts reserve margins

AUSTIN, TX, Dec. 16, 2020 – New generation resources, including a significant amount of utility-scale solar, continue to be added to the ERCOT region at a rapid pace, resulting in higher planning reserve margins over the next several years.

ERCOT today released its December Capacity, Demand and Reserves (CDR) Report, which includes planning reserve margins for the next five years. The planning reserve margin for summer 2021 is forecasted to be 15.5%, based on resource updates provided to ERCOT from generation developers and an updated peak demand forecast. This is down 1.8% from what was reported in the May CDR due to solar and wind project delays and cancellations. Between 2022 and 2025, the planning reserve margin is expected to reach 25-27%.

"In 2018 and 2019, ERCOT experienced historically-low planning reserve margins due to plant retirements," said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness. "These business cycles of retirements and new investments are expected in the ERCOT market, and it is ERCOT’s job to maintain reliable electric service through the various changing conditions." Any changes to generation resources will be accounted for in future CDR reports.
http://www.ercot.com/news/releases/show/219347