Five members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) board plan on resigning Wednesday, following last week's power outages amid a brutal winter storm. All five of the members live outside Texas, as does a sixth person who has withdrawn his application to the board, The Texas Tribune reports.
A nonprofit, ERCOT manages and operates the electricity grid for most of Texas. During last week's deadly storm, millions of Texas went without power, some for several days. In the wake of the mass power outage, ERCOT officials revealed during a press conference that several board members were being harassed by the public after it was reported that they did not live in Texas.
ERCOT, which is overseen by Texas' Public Utility Commission, has a 15-member board. Among those resigning are chairwoman Sally Talberg, vice chairman Peter Cramton, and Raymond Hepper, human resources and governance committee chair. Talberg, a former state utility regulator, lives in Michigan, while Cramton, a professor of economics at the University of Cologne and the University of Maryland, lives in Germany.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he welcomes the resignations. "The lack of preparedness and transparency at ERCOT is unacceptable," he said. "We will ensure that the disastrous events of last week are never repeated."