Snow covers the ground in Waco, Texas as severe winter weather conditions over the last few days has … [+]
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The chairman and four directors of ERCOT, the agency that runs Texas’ electricity grid, have resigned after the grid failed catastrophically during a cold snap that swept through the state and left millions without power for days last week, according to a filing.
The fallout comes as the toll of the extreme cold grows clearer. Dozens of people died after power plants in the typically warm-weather state went offline because they had failed to weatherize key infrastructure such as gas pipelines. Days after the first outages, tens of thousands of Texans remained without power.
In a letter addressed February 23rd to board members of the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), four of the directors wrote that they have “noted recent concerns about out-of-state board leadership at ERCOT.”
They added: “To allow state leaders a free hand with future direction and to eliminate distractions, we are resigning from the board effective after our urgent board teleconference meeting adjourns on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.”
The resignations of the five directors — board chairman Sally Talberg and vice chairman Peter Cramton, plus Terry Bulger, Raymond Hepper, and Vanessa Anesetti-Parra — will become effective tomorrow when ERCOT convenes a special board meeting conference.
As of January 1st, ERCOT’s board had 15 directors.
The filing was made on the website of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Bloomberg earlier reported the news.
