Thread by @wesrap

In Thursday AM briefing, ERCOT leadership says "we're not out of the woods yet but we did make a great amount of progress overnight and into the morning hours" on getting power back on for Texans. #txwx #txlege

"We're still in very cold conditions, so we're still seeing much higher than normal winter demand," ERCOT CEO Bill Magness says. Got thru AM peak without taking additional actions and hoping to get thru AM peak demand tomorrow the same. #txlege #txwx

"Customers should be seeing, you know, the light and the heat coming on and the who haven't been seeing it since earlier this week on a regular basis, as the transmission operators take on their process to put the power back in place," ERCOT CEO Bill Magness says. #txlege #txwx

Any penalties? ERCOT says it's not a regulatory body in that sense, but North American Electric Reliability Corporation can enforce generation rules. Failure to supply when you've committed can result in "strong financial consequences" in the marketplace. #txlege #txwx

Who has authority to require weatherization? ERCOT says NERC can levy hefty daily fines and enforce guidelines. #txlege #txwx

ERCOT says perception that Central TX area impacted harder by outages than other regions may be b/c ice damage to trees more severe here. "Live oak trees that still have all the leaves on it, you put a bunch of ice on it... crews have to go out and fix those lines." #txlege #txwx

When did ERCOT 1st tell Gov about potential for rolling blackouts/how did he respond? ERCOT says: we in constant comms w/ PUC. Participated in Sat press conf w/ Gov. "Expressed our concern, particularly around Mon AM & Tues AM, that we could have rotating outages." #txlege #txwx

How much of this regulation falls to RRC & PUC and not ERCOT? PUC is reg authority for ERCOT. RRC focuses on nat gas. ERCOT: TX had wellheads freezing up, so combo problem. ERCOT: 1 potential path of regulation for RRC is "make sure those wellheads don't freeze up" #txlege #txwx

Why still in Energy Emergency Alert level 3? ERCOT says: "It's a conservative decision but when I think given the still fluid nature of the weather & making sure we've got the generation we need and we keep it on, we feel like it's prudent to remain in that status." #txlege #txwx

ERCOT: Ice/snow could lead to more outages caused by damage to lines from freeze & tree limbs falling. The weather is driving events on the grid. #txlege #txwx

Feds warned TX grid susceptible to failure? ERCOT rep says "I'm not sure what federal report is being referenced," adding, "the fundamental thing we have to do to protect reliability is to ensure that there's not a catastrophic blackout." #txlege #txwx

On catastrophic blackout, ERCOT "If we let physics do the job...& it had been totally uncontrolled & we had a blackout, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about restoration today/tmrw. We'd be telling you that we're not sure when restoration would would be done." #txlege #txwx

How close was TX grid from "catastrophic blackout"? ERCOT: If operators "had not acted very rapidly" it was "seconds and minutes, given the amount of generation that was coming off the system at the same time that the demand was still going up significantly." #txlege #txwx

How'd ERCOT grade itself during this crisis? "We're still in the event... it's a little early." High marks for operators "who took those actions we just got to prevent a catastrophic blackout." "Other people ought to grade us" thru investigation. Constantly learning #txlege #txwx

Why ERCOT board info page on website removed? Info was "being used to send sometimes harassing communication & threats were being made to the board members" & "we were very concerned about both employee & board member safety.." Upon reflecting, will return it soon. #txlege #txwx