Texas

The regulatory group that oversees Texas’ deregulated power market has identified eight areas the agency will focus on as it continues to study the state’s response to a mid-February storm that left millions of electricity customers without power for several days. Texas power customers, along with electricity generators and retail power providers, continue to grapple […]

Board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the entity that operates and manages the electricity grid that covers much of Texas, voted late on March 3 to fire ERCOT CEO Bill Magness. The move comes as state and federal officials continue to investigate the actions of the grid operator that led to […]

The chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas has resigned, stepping down after the state’s lieutenant governor earlier on March 1 called for her resignation, along with that of the CEO of the state’s power grid operator. DeAnn Walker, the PUC chair, in her resignation letter Monday to Gov. Greg Abbott, defended her […]

The group considered Texas’ oldest and largest electricity cooperative has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it can’t pay money wanted by the state’s grid operator in connection with power outages during a major winter storm that hit in February. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative filed its bankruptcy petition March 1 in the U.S. Bankruptcy […]

The fallout from the severe weather that crippled the power grid in Texas and other states over the past week continues, as officials grapple with what went wrong and who should be held accountable for an energy emergency that left millions without electricity. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Feb. 19 said his office would […]

It will be some time before we know every detail that aligned to cause the tremendous number of sustained power outages in Texas, or the spiking power prices across all markets in the central states. Some things we do know. Some natural gas supply was frozen in. Some wind turbines froze up, and ice damaged some […]

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said reforming the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is an emergency item for state legislators in the current session, as power outages continue across the state for another day due to record cold temperatures as part of a massive winter storm. The governor on Feb. 16 said he wants […]

WASHINGTON, DC (February 10, 2021) — The non-profit organization Beyond Nuclear filed suit in federal court today to prevent the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from licensing a massive “consolidated interim storage facility” (CISF) for highly radioactive waste in Andrews County, west Texas. In its Petition for Review filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

The Montgomery County Power Station, a two-unit 993-MW natural gas-fired combined cycle plant, achieved commercial operation on Jan. 1, Entergy Texas Inc. and McDermott International Ltd. reported on Jan. 13. The plant—located at Entergy’s existing Lewis Creek site near Willis, Texas, about 50 miles north of Houston—was reportedly brought online “well ahead of schedule,” according […]

HOUSTON, Jan. 13, 2021 — McDermott International, Ltd today announced the beginning of commercial operation of the Montgomery County Power Station, a combined-cycle gas power station in Willis, Texas, owned by Entergy Texas, Inc. “Congratulations to Project Director Drew German and the entire team on the Montgomery County Power Station project for bringing it in […]