There are certain minimum requirements for a supplier to sell power into the market, and for the most part, anybody that meets those requirements can sell the power. The system is designed so that you can sell as much power as you can deliver if you can provide it at the lowest cost.
This has allowed innovation beyond imagination. It began with all the little companies offering co-gen plants back in the ‘90s. Plants that could quickly come on line to meet demand and then be efficiently idled when demand faded away. It has also enabled suppliers to bring wind and solar online, and some are working on battery plants, too.
The system works pretty well in most cases. Yes, we have had winter events before, such is 2011 when the SuperBowl froze. This though, was the first time since 1899 that ALL of Texas was hit by the weather. That is why it was unplanned. I am certain, many companies are adjusting their planning practices as we type.
Critical time is not most cases. When it gets this cold the local public utility is the supplier of last resort. If the suppliers fail and the utility fails to perform the system crashes, not for a day but for many days. Industries will suffer damage and losses. Residents suffer and could very possibly die. This is not a matter to take lightly and gloss over by pointing to minimum requirements..
I was in the energy field. I have no idea what your background is. From what I can tell you give little credence to the importance of performance. In July 1995 ComED failed on the hottest days. Over 700 hundred people died in those few days.
You have a massive outage in Texas. The system failed due to piss poor planning, execution and respect for the energy grid.
Innovation my ass. The wind suppliers were not held to a high standard of performance physically as well as financially. What was the backup plan if the renewables which made between 25-40% of the portfolio would fail? Were there contracts inlace with suppliers to perform to keep the grid up? Who vets these suppliers? What are the financial consequences to the supplier if the supplier fails to perform? What entity is responsible to keep the grid up when suppliers fail to perform for all customers - residential, commercial and industrial?