DALLAS (AP) – Federal officials on Thursday issued more than two dozen recommendations aimed at further securing power plants and natural gas supplies to prevent a repeat of the February power outages that caused more than 200 deaths in Texas.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Reliability Corp. made recommendations to the four FERC commissioners as they delivered a preliminary report on the February disaster that left millions of people without electricity in sub-zero temperatures.
“The situation didn’t have to be as bad as it was,” said FERC Chairman Richard Glick. He said changes should have been made after a 2011 winter storm in Texas caused power outages when a report called for mandatory weathering of power plants.
“But somehow that recommendation was eventually watered down to guidelines that few generators actually followed,” said Glick, a former lawyer for the Democratic Congressional staff. “I can guarantee you that this time around, FERC will not ignore or dilute these recommendations.”
In the preliminary report, officials recommended that utilities adhere to stricter standards to protect their assets from freezing temperatures and seek compensation for the cost of wintering. Such a change would make Texas’ deregulated electricity market more similar to that in other states.
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