DALLAS — ERCOT's interim president and CEO Brad Jones attended an energy forum in Dallas on Friday. Jones, who admits to putting in a lot of car miles lately, has traveled the state to answer questions and listen to concerns about Texas' grid.
It's almost been nearly a year since the February freeze that led to the state's most catastrophic energy failure.
"We are very ready," Jones said in response to a question from WFAA regarding whether the state's energy grid is capable of handling another winter. His confidence in the grid is also matched by Gov. Greg Abbott.
ERCOT, the Texas Legislature, the Public Utilities Commission and the energy industry have had one year to get it right. In February of 2021 there were major blackouts after power plants went offline.
Power plants, which in Texas run off natural gas, could not receive supply after infrastructure components, which were not winterized, froze over.
"We've spent the last 12 months making sure all the generators are ready to operate. They've improved their weatherization and made sure they had insulation on their equipment," said Jones.
Jones advocates for gas suppliers to not go offline and be added to a "Critical Infrastructure List," like hospitals, so they're not rotated in the event of outages in the system. Jones is also on record advocating for a stream of communication between gas and electric providers.
"We'll set up an operating desk. That means an operator on staff 24 hours a day that will be monitoring the reliability of our gas system so we can inform how it may affect electric," he said.
The legislature has made it possible for ERCOT to inspect these generators and even levy million-dollar penalties if they fail standards. Power generators had until Dec. 1, 2021, to get on board. So far, eight generation companies have failed inspections and the Public Utility Commission has proposed fines totaling $7.5 million.
The coming weeks, months and years may be the test. And we're all hoping Texas passes.