BLAME ALL AROUND

Five key points that emerged this week about the Texas grid failures. Lawmakers will not stop at ERCOT: Seven of the 15 board members resigned from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which was under fire for a week before the hearings. Gov. Greg Abbott has called publicly for an “overhaul” of ERCOT, the nonprofit that manages the state grid. Lawmakers are now increasing their scrutiny of the Public Utility Commission, the leaders of which are appointed by Abbott. Power companies suggest market reform: Texas caps the wholesale price of electricity at $9,000 per megawatt-hour, which last week the Public Utility Commission approved during peak demand. Curtis Morgan, president and CEO of Vistra Energy, one of the state’s largest power providers, said having a cap that high disincentivizes generators from producing enough energy to meet demand until prices rise. He added that the state’s 15 percent reserve margin could be higher.

Two kinds of winterization: Texas lawmakers have long known of the need to winterize Texas power plants, roughly a third of which went offline during the disaster. Natural gas shortages caused by frozen wellheads and power disruptions were the biggest reported hindrance for power plants, though similar failures were also seen in nuclear, wind, solar and coal energy sources.

Natural gas distribution needs electricity: About half the gas pipelines use electricity for their pumps, but many were not listed as essential services and have said their power was cut off, creating more gas supply problems for power plants.

Top state officials had five-day notice: On Feb. 10, five days before the blackouts began, ERCOT warned that demand for power would spike at 70,000 megawatt-hours that coming Sunday, a record. “The warning signs were there, but the public was unaware of the gravity of the situation,” Vistra Energy suggested in a statement this week. They said ERCOT’s early advisory should have spurred greater planning and coordination by state officials.