ERCOT Needs an Independent Review

On the evening of September 6th, the ERCOT control room was tense. 

Texans were close to the first summer rolling outages in more than a generation. Frequency had dropped precipitously, even though ERCOT thought they had enough generation online. Batteries dispatched just enough power to the grid to keep the lights on across the state.

As I wrote the day after, it’s likely ERCOT made a mistake that evening. Much more importantly, it’s likely they could avoid the same mistake next time. It’s critically important that ERCOT learn from the experience and improve their operations. 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be happening. 

Last week, on the day before Thanksgiving, ERCOT released its self-assessment on the incident. The agency gave itself an A+. No one should get to grade their own papers; a third party needs to review ERCOT’s actions on September 6 and make recommendations to ensure the right lessons are learned…