What insanity? This so-called news article lacks context.
If natural gas is used for power, it can be curtailed to prevent congestion in transmission lines.
If natural gas is used for heat, it can be curtailed in an emergency to prevent fires perhaps due to broken pipes.
What nonsense you say?
Some MBAs F’d up they saw dollar signs to be part of a curtailment program and didn’t stop to think their infrastructure might be critical need and not eligible for the payoffs. Corporate greed as usual. Texas needs to end RECORD and the PUC go back to regulation from the state and force winterizing the grid, Mark all the gas infrastructure as critical and install back up diesels at the pipe line points and mandate 25% spinning reserves above the Max estimated mwh demand at any 15 epoch. Costs will be ten billion spread out over all the rate payers and over two fiscal years. Sell state bonds to cover it and recoup the costs via a per kWh tariff in every one sold statewide to commercial residential and industrial equally.
“If an entity is considered critical infrastructure, then it should not be offering to participate in the ERS program,” ERCOT said in a statement late Tuesday, referring to the voluntary Emergency Response Program’s acronym.”
Looks like context right there. Bet the problem was price. And the utilities that signed up were buying protection from having to eat any cost increase.