New Study Says ERCOT Paid Companies To Shut Off Power In February

Dallas TX

01 September, 2021

10:50 AM

Description

DALLAS, TX — According to 100-page report issued yesterday at the University of Texas researchers, some 67 gas companies were paid to shut off power during the February deep freeze. Most were natural gas suppliers and included some that provided critical fuel to power plants across the state. The report concludes that it was a systemic series of failures that caused "a loss of power for more than 4.5 million homes," according to the report issued Tuesday. "This failure has resulted in at least 57 deaths across 25 Texas counties and over $195 billion in property damage." Want to be the first to know about Patch membership when it launches? Click here to find out how you can support Patch and local journalism. The report says that some 67 pipeline infrastructure locations and gas refining sites were permitted to participate in a voluntary program dedicated to emergency repose program managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, known better as ERCOT. ERCOT maintains the state's power grid, and, in exchange for the payments, ERCOT had permission to cut off their power in case of emergency. And those 67 locations receiving payouts from ERCOT? Of those, five "identified themselves later to the electric utility as critical natural gas infrastructure," the report claims. While the details are a maze, what does emerge is a picture of dominoes falling. Since most Texas power plants rely on natural gas for their fuel, the plants shut down because they had no fuel to run. In addition, researchers found that some generation units providing power tripped offline after reaching temperatures they were designed to withstand. Joshua Rhodes, who worked on the report, called the plan for natural gas facilities to shut down in an emergency "counterintuitive." ERCOT officials have not commented on the report's findings, and researchers say that the state did not provide the names of the 67 companies, their locations — or how much they were paid to shut down. How much could have been paid out? ERCOT has a compensation cap of $50 million per year. Looking for more Dallas news? Subscribe.