AUSTIN, Texas 鈥� Top board leaders of Texas鈥� embattled power grid operator said Tuesday they will resign following outrage over more than 4 million customers losing electricity last week during a deadly winter storm, including many whose frigid homes lacked heat for days in subfreezing temperatures.
The resignations are the first since the crisis began in Texas, and calls for wider firings remain in the aftermath of one of the worst power outages in U.S. history.
All of the five board directors who are stepping down, including Chairwoman Sally Talberg, live outside of Texas, which only intensified criticism of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The resignations are effective Wednesday 鈥� a day before Texas lawmakers are expected to sharply question grid managers and energy officials about the failures during hearings at the
Another candidate for a director position, who also does not live in Texas, said he was withdrawing his name.
Four of the departing board members acknowledged 鈥渃oncerns about out-of-state board leadership" in a letter to grid members and the state's Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT. During the crisis, ERCOT officials removed contact information for board members off its
鈥淥ur hearts go out to all Texans who have had to go without electricity, heat, and water during frigid temperatures and continue to face the tragic consequences of this emergency," the letter read.
The other board members are vice chairman Peter Cramton, Terry Bulger and Raymond Hepper. Talberg lives in Michigan and Bulger lives in Wheaton, Illinois, according to their biographies on ERCOT's
There are a total of 16 members on ERCOT's board, which appoints officers who manage the grid manager鈥檚 day-to-day operations.
Historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures in Texas last week left millions without power and water for days. The storm was part of any icy blast across the Deep South t hat is blamed for more than 80 deaths, roughly half of which were in Texas.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has largely blamed the outages on ERCOT and called for investigations. But the problems were wider than ERCOT, including power plants that were knocked offline by the extreme cold and natural gas producers didn鈥檛 protect wellheads from freezing.
鈥淭he lack of preparedness and transparency at ERCOT is unacceptable, and I welcome these resignations," Abbott said in a statement. 鈥淭he State of Texas will continue to investigate ERCOT and uncover the full picture of what went wrong, and we will ensure that the disastrous events of last week are never repeated.鈥�
ERCOT president Bill Magness has said Texas' power grid 鈥� which is uniquely isolated from the rest of the U.S. 鈥� was on the brink of collapse in the early hours of Feb. 15 as power plants froze in the cold and a record demand for electricity to heat home overwhelmed the system. He has defended the outages as a necessity, while Abbott has accused ERCOT of misleading Texas about the readiness of the grid.
As governor, Abbott picks the commissioners of the Public Utility Commission that oversees ERCOT. The selection of 鈥渦naffiliated鈥� ERCOT board members 鈥� like most of those who are resigning 鈥� must be approved by the PUC.
According to tax filings from 2018, Cramton received $87,000 in compensation and worked an average of five hours a week. Bulger got $65,250 and worked an average of eight hours a week. Three others on the board at the time were paid between $92,600 and $100,100, though it was not immediately known how many hours they worked. ERCOT valued Magness鈥� total compensation that year at $883,264.
After ERCOT removed board members' information from the
鈥淚t was a security, safety idea," Magness said.
Cramton, whose page on the professional networking site LinkedIn lists him as living in California, declined comment when contacted Tuesday. The other board members did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Koenig reported from Dallas.
Paul J. Weber And David Koenig, The Associated Press
