Maybe you need to understand what ERCOT is. It isn’t a state
organization but a group that owns power generation/distribution
in the state of Texas. It has members from across the USA. Sally
Talberg is chair person of that group at this time.
http://www.ercot.com/about/governance/directors
snip
ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation,
governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public
Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. Its members
include consumers, cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail
electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities, transmission and
distribution providers and municipally owned electric utilities.
“Only way to turn Texas blue...” (!!)
Okay, but seriously. I’m from Michigan, home of “kinda cold” temperatures (it’s currently 2F). But then we insulate our house well (and therefore our piping), and try to have contingency plans for power outages - like fireplaces/generators.
Let us know what we can do to help, Texas!
I had an uncle that moved from here to Montana, where -30 isn’t out of the norm. We asked him how he handles the cold: “Just another layer of clothes”...
As far as how you got to this point other than a big arse cold snap? Here’s an example to see if you can locate some accountability in your situation. We had a long time dam that broke back in spring of 2020. It’s still going through the courts to figure out what went wrong other than “a lot of rain”, but it was a privately held dam before some local counties “bought out” the owner in 2018 or so. IIRC, there were conflicting regulations that tied the owners hands from doing some updates (couldn’t legally sell the electricity?). So he kept the water level low to prevent issues with it failing.
“Three weeks before the 96-year-old dam failed this week amid heavy rains and caused the worst flood in Midland history, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued its owner, alleging it illegally lowered Wixom Lake in 2018 and 2019, killing “thousands if not millions, of freshwater mussels.””
“How we got to the point where environmental issues trumped public safety, I don’t know,” said David Kepler, a resident who lives off nearby Sanford Lake and is president of the Four Lakes Task Force, an association largely consisting of waterfront property owners that was in the process of buying the Edenville Dam and three others before this week’s flood.”
So it almost sounds like the owner was out regulated (over a number of years) from doing anything to fix the dam. Toss in a lawyer suing them for keeping the water level too low. The Michigan AG was Dana Nessel (brought in by the 2018 election with governor Gretchen Whitmer and secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, all three rumored S0rus acquaintences?). The same AG that threatened legal sanctions against lawyers questioning the 2020 election
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3919159/posts
I don’t know Texas as well as you folks do, but maybe do some chasin’ to see who’d been working against expanding your grid...