Thread by @douglewinenergy

This meeing is underway. Can be viewed here.

Chairman Lake says the meeting today is a venue for discussion, a forum for consideration of ideas, not for taking action, which will stay in the more formal open meetings.

More updates soon on this thread.

texasadmin.com/tx/puct/open_m…

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1400163468691509248

Commissioner McAdams agrees that this is a good way to discuss things before decisions are made which gives the public more chance to weigh in.

Public comment begins.

Rita Robles, a resident of Denver Harbor, a Houston neighborhood, addresses the commissioners. Says many people in her neighborhood had busted pipes. One neighbor still hasn't been able to fix her pipes nearly four months later.

Carolyn Rivera, another Houston resident, thanks the @PUCTX for initiating a moratorium on shutoffs. Asks the Commission to extend the moratorium. Says that pipes burst even last week because they were weakened by the storm and people are suffering.

She says hurricane season is coming and the Commission needs to continue protecting Texans. There is a need to extend the moratorium.

@TexasGleeson says the comment is a good segueway into the discussion of the memo about ending the moratorium

interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/5181…

#txlege

Bobby Wilkinson of @TDHCA begins talking about assistance programs they have.

2021 LIHEAP is $161m statewide but was bumped up by CARES account and Rescue Act by ~$200-250m collectively. All 254 counties are covered.

Folks who want to know how to access these benefits can find more here:
tdhca.state.tx.us/texans.htm

Also have $1b in rental relief and giving out $10m/day for between 1,000-1,500 households per day.

This program was slow to start but is now moving
texastribune.org/2021/04/07/tex…

Commissioner McAdams says @PUCTX will soon put out a one-pager with all the various resources available to people.

McAdams says he has been in touch with @AARPTX. Says many seniors, if they own their homes, don't qualify for rent relief.

Says @AARPTX cited the compounding impacts of COVID and the winter storm to argue for a longer period of time before the moratorium on disconnects ends.

#txlege #txenergy #TexasFreeze

Commissioners call up Lori Cobos, Director of @OPUCTX, the office with statutory responsibility to protect interests of residential and small commercial customers. Says much of their early focus was to help the many people with indexed rate plans (e.g. Griddy) that called in.

@OPUCTX seeing massive increase in calls with people dealing with very high bills. Many of these are small commercial customers, many with bills 8-20x what they normally are.

Yeesh.

#txlege

Cobos says if the moratorium is lifted @PUCTX should make sure to keep in mind the small businesses.

Chairman Lake says bill passed to help with ancillary services and should help REPs and small businesses. I believe he means #HB4492, awaiting Gov's signature.

#txlege

Commissioner McAdams says even once moratorium ends there is flexibility for five months and that applies to small commercial and residential

[I'm unclear if this meand that disconnects can't happen during the five months. If you know, please reply. Maybe @PUCTX can clarify]

Many REPs have submitted comments in Project 51812 saying what they'll do to prevent disconnects.

Can be seen here: interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/filings…

Now moving on to an @ERCOT_ISO update.

ERCOT wants to file two NPRRs (nodal protocol revision request, basically a rule change) with the Independent Market Monitor

(1) cap ancillary service prices at $9000. Says they can implement this change quickly.

Chairman Lake asks what the current rule is. Says premiums can be added to raise ancillary services over 9k. Ogelman from #ERCOT says during the storm ancillary service costs reached as high as $26,000/MWh and were routinely during that week in the $16-18k range.

Commissioner McAdams asks if these changes conform to #SB3. Short answer: yes.

Ogelman says this could be in place in advance of summer peaks.

NPRR 2: If load shed is underway, price goes to cap with price adders automatically. As soon as load shed ends, the prices would revert to normal.

Chairman Lake notes there have been problems with getting to the cap during outages and getting away from it once outages are over

Lake encourages ERCOT to test these new protocols on "tail events" the 1% of extreme events. Ogelman says they will.

Also says they will designate high urgency for both these NPRRs.

Cmsr McAdams says these should happen even before the new Board in #SB2 is in place.

#txlege

My usual but important caveat, trying to keep up with all this. If I get something wrong, please let me know. Everything here is paraphrased unless specifically put in quotes and if I made any mistakes, I'll correct them if you lmk.

Now @barlandrew, PUC comms, discussing improvements in communications coming soon. They will begin by communicating what #txlege did during the session to prevent future outages and also about summer preparedness.

@barlandrew continues, noting populace has been "badly traumatized" by the outages. @PUCTX is making an effort to communicate mostly through TV and radio with the general population.

Draft communication plan will be shared with Commission at June 11 meeting.

#txlege #txenergy

Barlow says @TDEM does not usually activate the State Operations Center (SOC) in a summer extreme heat event but @PUCTX and @ERCOT_ISO can still use their communications channels.

Says also any concerns on tight grid conditions will be communicated earlier.

Says there could be concerns with over-communications. Also notes how different summer and winter communications are.

Chairman Lake says we need clearer communications "plain language, less jargon." Also notes comms work extends beyond emergencies (e.g. utility assistance)

Commissioner McAdams notes that the public is now acutely aware of ERCOT and PUCT "no longer a sleepy little agency"

Says education efforts need to get better. Cites as an example we need to communicate better what an EEA1 is b/c these alerts will go out
ercot.com/eea_info/show/…

Connie Carona, Deputy Director of @PUCTX wants to clarify timelines for various projects.

51830: wholesale indexed products.

Staff proposes to broaden scope of the project to include changes in #HB16 which prohibits those products and enhances customer notices

Also want to review the document called "Your Rights as a Customer." Wants to let customers know how to be registered as critical load (e.g. someone dependent on medical equipment).

Wants to have a strawman rule in June and a formal rule in July.

this? puc.texas.gov/consumer/facts…

Timing for Project 51840 Weatherization

Related to #SB3 on the Governor's desk. issues in #SB3 are broad so will take more prep time but will "keep an urgent pace" and bring a draft to a July workshop and a rule in August so it's in place by November.

Chairman Lake instructs staff to keep in mind different needs of summer vs. winter. Have to solve for both not just one. Also wants them to keep in mind geographical differences in Texas.

Also wants to know who else has done this well. Commissioner McAdams notes Australia.

Project 51888 Critical Load Standards and Process

Carona wants that to follow same timeline as 51840. Workshop in July, rule published in August, adopted in November.

#txlege #txenergy

Three new projects arising from legislation

1) #SB2 changes ERCOT governance significantly. Protocal revisions require Market Impact Statements. This must be in place by Sept. 1

2) From #SB3 PUC has a directive to create a power outage alert.

(cont.)

3) #SB3 also includes water customer protections which will need rulemaking.

#txlege

Commissioner McAdams wants to look at how market participants interact at ERCOT. Also at revamping the Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) and the Capacity Demand Reserve (CDR) report. Need a venue to consider all the storage and solar that is coming.

#energytwitter

McAdams says on securitization "not well versed in how this will work." Not sure when that will come full force. And will leverage Chairman Lake's expertise.

#SB3 includes change to scarcity pricing mechanism. How does ORDC work in this new high CAP system? Need experts to help

Commissioner McAdams says #txlege will be back sooner rather than later and they could potentially sit in on some of the work sessions with experts.

Chairman Lake: you're braver than I am to speculate when they'll be back.

#txlege

Chairman Lake: next 30 days, acute focus on the summer. Get this grid in as good a condition as possible for whatever the summer holds. Need a focus on extreme conditions. Like flying a plane, 99% of the time its boring but need to be ready for the 1% when it's interesting.

Chairman Lake also wants to make sure there's continued focus on cybersecurity. Exec Director Gleeson says the cybermonitor can be available to make a presentation.

Adjourned to closed session.

End 🧵