AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF) – The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Thursday that it has completed on-site inspections of mandatory winterization efforts. According to ERCOT, inspection results show the independently-owned electric generation fleet and electric transmission companies serving the ERCOT region are ready for winter weather.
The inspections came following last February’s deadly winter storm that left millions of Texans in the dark when ERCOT forced outages to relieve an overwhelmed power grid.
ERCOT officials said inspections were completed at more than 300 electric generation units, representing 85 percent of the megawatt hours lost during Winter Storm Uri due to outages and 22 transmission station facilities.
ERCOT has filed a preliminary summary inspection report with the Public Utility Commission of Texas and will submit its final inspection report on January 18, 2022 for review and any potential enforcement action. Earlier this year the Legislature increased the maximum penalties for violating weatherization rules to $1,000,000 per day per violation.
“Texans can be confident the electric generation fleet and the grid are winterized and ready to provide power,” said Woody Rickerson, Vice President of Grid Planning and Weatherization. “New regulations require all electric generation and transmission owners to make significant winterization improvements and our inspections confirm they are prepared.”
Of 302 generation resources inspected, ERCOT said some generators had exceeded PUC winterization requirements. Only ten generation resources inspected had items identified on the day of inspection requiring correction. For example, a generation unit may have needed a windscreen to be compliant, but it was not yet installed on the day of inspection. The ten generation units have a total capacity of 2,129 megawatts, representing about 1.7 percent of the total ERCOT generation fleet.
Of the 22 transmission station facilities inspected, ERCOT found that six had potential identified deficiencies, most of which have already been corrected. According to ERCOT, these were generally minor items, such as cabinet heaters out of service or missing weather stripping on cabinet doors on the day of inspection. Most of these items have already been corrected.
ERCOT will conduct follow-up inspections on the generation and transmission facilities with potential identified issues.
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