Invoice Magness, the previous CEO of the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas, testified this Wednesday that he was following Governor Greg Abbott’s directions when he ordered energy costs to remain on the most worth cap for days on finish throughout final 12 months’s unprecedented winter storm and blackout, racking up billions of {dollars} in payments for energy corporations.
The previous head of the Texas energy grid additionally added that even when energy vegetation have been beginning to restore, former Public Utility Fee Chairman DeAnn Walker confirmed to him that the governor wished ERCOT to do no matter was vital to stop any sort of blackout.
“She told me the governor had conveyed to her if we emerged from rotating outages it was imperative they not resume,” Magness mentioned in his testimony. “We needed to do what we needed to do to make it happen.”
On the time energy costs have been saved on the most cap of $9,000 per megawatt-hour, greater than 150 instances regular costs. The surge lasted for greater than 24 hours. Allegedly, the choice was made to encourage massive energy customers to stay offline.
ERCOT’s choice to maintain costs on the cap till Feb. 19, was closely criticized by the Texas Impartial Market Monitor, calling them out for exceeding “the mandate of the Commission.”
Magness was ultimately fired, nonetheless, he maintains that he made the required choices for conserving the grid on-line and stopping extra blackouts that would have simply lasted for months.