Rep. Drew Darby questioned power transmission line operators during the marathon Texas House hearing on the five day power outage we experienced from Sunday, Feb. 14 to Thursday Feb. 18, 2021.
Darby continued his empathy for line operators in that they are prohibited by the Texas legislature from knowing their customers. Line operators. like the power generators, indicated they both know their customers and have many ways of communicating with them, text, website, phone app, and call center. One firm has a power alert service that informs customers that there power is out.
I called AEP several times and at no time did the person at the other end of the line inform me of what was going on. I called our local sheriff and asked if AEP kept them in the loop. They said no and to check the AEP website for outage information. I did that multiple times over the five day period and our outage never changed from "under assessment", even after the power came back on for good.
ERCOT has a gas-electric working group that failed to ensure natural gas moved from well head to power plants during a crisis. Darby proposed a new coordinating group to take up this function.
Rep. Darby had one statement for Chair of the Public Utility Commission DeAnn Walker. He said the PUC has the power to meet with one hour's notice and said the PUC should have done this frequently during the emergency.
Darby asked nothing of ERCOT's CEO Bill Magness. I still don't know why AEP couldn't rotate power during the crisis and why we took the brunt for the power failure. Maybe the next hearing will provide an answer.
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