Texas Gov. Abbott meets with state energy leaders to discuss grid reliability

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott is now considering input from state energy officials on the status of the state’s power grid.

On Tuesday, Governor Abbott was joined by Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Interim President and CEO Brad Jones, Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) Chairman Peter Lake, and Incoming CEO of ERCOT Pablo Vegas, who will assume his role as CEO of ERCOT on October 1, 2022.

“The State of Texas continues to monitor the reliability of our electric grid, and I thank ERCOT and PUC for their hard work to implement bipartisan reforms we passed last year and for their proactive leadership to ensure our grid is stronger than ever before,” said Governor Abbott. “The beginning of this fall season also marks a new season for ERCOT as we welcome its new CEO, Pablo Vegas. Pablo will be joining ERCOT with an exceptional background in the energy industry, and I look forward to working with him as we continue to build upon the exemplary job that Brad Jones has done as Interim CEO.”

The Governor also received a briefing on the Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) report to make sure Texas’ electric grid continues meeting demand. In a release, Governor Abbott was informed the state’s electric grid is in a strong position heading into the fall. Also discussed were ways that reforms put in place by the State of Texas continue to make the grid stronger, more reliable, and resilient.

“Going into the fall, we have sufficient resources to meet demand for power, and we’re very excited to welcome ERCOT’s new president and CEO, Pablo Vegas back to Texas in October,” said PUC Chairman Peter Lake. “As our record-setting summer winds down, now is no time to rest. We will continue to ensure the grid is reliable using all the tools we have, including closely managing outages generators need to take for maintenance.”