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Texas lawmakers are calling for investigations into the state’s power grid manager and are demanding resignations from some of its top leadership.
As of Wednesday morning approximately 2.7 million households in Texas have woken up without electricity with little answers as to when the lights and the heat can be turned back on.
“Millions of people without power during this arctic blast is life-threatening and unacceptable,” Texas and state senate head Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. “We must get to the bottom of this to be sure we are better prepared even if an unprecedented weather event happens again.”
Texas and much of the United States are facing record-low temperatures with the winter storm that rolled through earlier this week.
The severe weather initially left an estimated 4 million homes without power by Tuesday morning, according to the Texas Tribune, killing at least 10.
What Happened to the Texas Power Grid?
The cold front that swept across Texas brought with it two to nine inches of snow and ice, according to The Houston Chronicle.
Unlike other states, Texas power operates its own power grid managed by nonprofit Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which provides about 90 percent of Texas’ power, Vox reports.
Most of that power comes from natural gas. When the winter storm rolled through, natural gas pipelines were clogged by ice or disabled by losing power, and demand spiked at the same time. Because the Texas grid isn’t linked to a national one, it was unable to import extra power, according to the Washington Post.
Critics, including certain Texas leaders, claim ERCOT wasn’t prepared despite knowing the storm was coming and hasn’t invested enough in weather-proofing infrastructure.
The surge in demand sent wholesale energy prices skyrocketing, triggering ERCOT’s computers to cut off customers to avoid paying the higher prices, according to The Washington Post.
Neither ERCOT nor any of Texas energy providers are facing litigation over the massive outage but Top Class Actions is tracking the story for developments.
Energy Price Spike
On Monday Texas regulators held an emergency meeting to allow ERCOT to change its pricing to reflect the increased demand, KVEO reports.
“Energy prices should reflect scarcity of the supply. If customer load is being shed, scarcity is at its maximum, and the market price for the energy needed to serve that load should also be at its highest,” the regulators said in the order.
KVUEreports there are caps in place to ensure customers aren’t gouged with an exuberant electric bill, but regulators in other parts of the United States have faced legal actions relating to prices.
Utility Lawsuits in the Past
The issue of unregulated, independent electric companies was the subject of a class action lawsuit filed last week in Maryland. The lead plaintiff argued Major Energy Electric Services gouges her with expensive bills and it only happened after the market was deregulated.
Currently, an Ohio utility faces a class action lawsuit from customers alleging a bribery scheme. A judge denied FirstEnergy’s motion to have that complaint dismissed last week. Consumers in that case allege FirstEnergy paid out $1 million dollars to an organization run by an Ohio lawmaker.
Other class action lawsuits have reached settlements.
Xcel Energy, a Colorado natural gas company, agreed to pay out $2.5 million in a complaint alleging the manipulation of gas prices last month.
Consumers claimed the company was publishing false data and practicing so-called “wash trades.”
Also in January, more than 40,000 Australians were represented in a class action targeting two government owned electric utility companies. The lawsuit was filed after Queensland customers saw 90 percent increases in their bills in the last five years.
Southern California Edison faces charges of negligence in the massive wildfire that consumed much of the state starting in 2017. The numerous lawsuits are estimated to cost the utility approximately $6.2 billion in losses.
Southern California Edison has already paid out an estimated $128 million in settlements stemming from the wildfires and mudslides already, according to VC Star.
Are you living in Texas without power? What do you think of ERCOT’s role in the power outages? Let us know in the comments below.
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87 thoughts onWill Texas Grid Manager ERCOT Face Class Actions Over Power Outages?
Woke up Monday morning to power outage. Also discovered no cell phone coverage. All information we received was going outside, talking to neighbors or starting our cars to listen to news. Our first ‘rolling blackout’ was approximately 30 hours. Power came on Tuesday afternoon for about an hour and half. Called Oncor crazy amount of times and never got through. The next time power came on was Thursday afternoon for around 3 hours,inside house Temps dropped to the mid 30’s throughout this week’s ordeal. Power came back on Friday afternoon and thankfulky stayed on. We used the gas stove top burners to heat ourselves up the best we could. Used multiple layers of clothing and every blanket and towels to keep warm at night. Myself, wife, and sister are realistic and in average health. We realize this could have been so much worse and fortunately are some of the lucky ones throughout the state. I am saddened about all the harder impacted family’s and lost of life that needlessly impacted people of Texas. The worst thing here is all the decision makers be it City, county, state level and ERCOT and ONCOR will spend the rest of the year pointing fingers at eachother. Bottom line is greed and profit took prescendence over proactive winterizing equipment in their care. We, the consumers are expected to fulfill our obligations of usage. I am a second generation Texan and am completely disgusted with all of our leaders, they have failed us at the worst time while their ‘constituents’ are at our most vulnerable in relying on them. I will fight back on any power or gas spike bill for this past week. Especially power as our household was without for the majority of past week.
I would be happy to join a class action suit, I have never contemplated in the past yet belive this is the only language decision makers understand with the hope that true action occurs to ensure this type of complete lack of communication and preparation never has to happen again.
The Texas Government is just as responsible as ERCOT, they had a report after 2011 storm that said to weatherize the grid. In 2017 they voted down a bill to weatherize the grid. They allowed ERCOT to run the grid supposedly under the supervision of the PUC.
ERCOT is a 501c 4 non profit, not even a government agency. Their board is comprised of energy sector executives.
Problem is Government put energy sector executives in charge of the grid. They put the fox in charge of the chicken house.
Further when you make a claim with your energy provider for damages they deny it and point the finger at ERCOT. They are pointing their finger at their own executives saying it is my bosses fault.
ERCOT is set up as a sacrificial lamb that the government blames and the power companies blame.
More troubling is the Panda Energy case where ERCOT was basically given sovereign immunity.
My biggest issue the power company says they are sorry and we are supposed to accept that even though they don’t accept sorry as payment. The government doesn’t except sorry as payment for taxes either. When it is us regular paycheck to paycheck folks they are trying to stick with the bill for all the property damage they caused.
If they are not held financially responsible for the damage we are going to get more of the same shotty excuses and service.
ERCOT along with weak Texas legislation is 100% responsible for what happened. After 6 hours of rolling blackouts, I spent 36 hours without electricity, and in an all electric house, that was not good nor fun. The inside of my home dropped to 19 degrees, my drinkable water and food all froze, solid. I even had exploding soda cans to boot. I can’t wait for my over inflated electric bill!
I lost power early on Monday morning. I immediately called Texas Energy to ask about the situation. I was told that power would be restored in 13 to 45 minutes. I am elderly, disabled and have a sister living with me who is the same. Additionally, we are both trying to recover from covid. This situation could have been fatal for both of us. I am currently unemployed, due to the disability, so getting a hotel room was not possible. Fortunately, my nephew still had power and invited us to stay with him until power was restored. The power company was warned about the possibility of the situation recurring. The weather bureau warned them in advance, so they would be prepared. They did absolutely nothing to address the public’s needs. They take our money, spike our rates, and ignore the deficiencies…why??? GREED!!! They need to be SUED!!!
We lost power in Grand Prairie (Joe Pool Lake) on Monday morning. It is Saturday afternoon and we still have no power. Currently at 124 hours with no electricity. I repeat: 124 hours with no electricity.
One way or another, executives will be held accountable.
We lost power for 64 hours straight, starting at 11:15am on Monday 2/15 temperature inside our home hit 44 degrees and never above 47 after 7am on Tuesday 2/16. One neighbor 5 house away and another one street over lost power at the same time and we’re only without for 12 hours with their power coming back at 10:30pm on Monday 2/15. Tried calling out power company Garland Power and Light at least 100 times was only able to talk to someone on Monday 2/15 at 5pm who said we’re working on it, was never able to get through again throughout our outage the system hung up every time after being on hold about 2 minutes. Someone needs to be held accountable for this fiasco this should happened in poorly managed third countries not US! Will gladly join any class action lawsuit and work diligently to recruit as many other claimants as well.
I work in environmental compliance and I have several years of experience at natural gas plants. Every winter we have freezes and every single one of them causes equipment to fail in ways that can be prevented. No one bothers winterizing except in minor ways. This weather event was far more severe than normal, but was certainly not unforeseen.
The TCEQ basically rubber-stamps any explanation for flaring (burning off extra gas) that results from these outages if gas companies claim it was weather. They are starting to expect more weather event preparation from gas companies but they’re hamstrung severely by a lack of personnel and funds.
I have a panic attack everytime the power spikes fearing being stuck in the cold and dark again.
We were without power for 96 hours straight. Our 72 yo neighbor was going to take his wife to a crowded shelter in the middle of a pandemic to keep warm. ONCOR directed crews to halt repairs in order to shed load in the controlled outages. The controll part was controlling repairs.
For every other emergency (hurricane, tornadoes, floods, thunder storms, heat advisory, cold temp, etc.) we receive multiple warnings. Alarms, TV warnings, cell phone warnings, etc..
For this, a warning was provided of a level 1 concern at 12:417am on Feb 15.
Less than 1 hour later it went to level 2 and 13 minutes later it went to level 3.
No alarms went off for my security system, cell phone, public alarm system, etc.
It was clear that the storm was coming weeks ahead of time so there was plenty of time to take preventive measures.
ERCOT and the Texas government chose not to take action.
ERCOT knowing allowed everyone in Texas to suffer the results of their negligence.
They along with Texas government officials should be held accountable for all of the deaths and damage associated to the catastrophe.
1st degree murder charges should be filed against each as this was an avoidable event that they chose to ignore