Pablo Vegas, president and CEO of ERCOT , and Rudy Garza, CPS Energy President and CEO , discuss the"State of Energy" at a forum hosted Wednesday by the North San Antonio Chamber and moderated by A.J. Rodriguez, Texas 2036’s executive vice president .
. The Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT, unanimously approved the idea in January, but it’s unclear whether lawmakers will approve or direct the agency to tweak it in some way.there are far less costly ways to increase grid reliability, such as requiring natural gas producers to winterize, as the Texas Legislature now requires electricity generators like CPS Energy to do.
Vegas, who was named ERCOT’s CEO in August 2022, 16 months after the former CEO was fired after the deadly 2021 winter storm, talked up the proposal Wednesday. Between 2000 and 2008, more than 20,000 megawatts of net new dispatchable generation was added to the grid, he said. Between 2008 and 2022 only 1,500 megawatts of net new dispatchable generation was added; 20,925 megawatts were retired — mostly aging coal plants — while 22,485 megawatts were added.